I have a postcard mouth.
all it ever says is:
wish you were here.

━  t. mateer

━━ 𓄼 𓄹 ━━

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 in Cameron Mejia's life when the slow lane beckoned. 

 Wide open skies and languid California summers leaning into a burning sun. Time was on her side, an old friend come to dance in the desert. But at the cusp of adulthood, everything changed.  The maybe dream of a quiet job dissolved under her feet and a world of opportunities was pushed into motion with the roar of a fighter jet. Cam dove headfirst into the straight-laced world of a naval aviator, climbing into the seat of glory that she never believed could be hers.

Eventually, there comes a time when you are no longer aspiring. You simply are, or you are not. A cut and dried line that brings no solace. These people are all talkers, her dad always tells her, show them what it means to be a doer.

Her time as a Top Gun student long since completed, the height of her career arrives. Never an easy job, but always the thing she chooses first. Over love, over comfort, over the forked road of distant possibilities. Change is an addiction, an adrenaline rush that she has learned to crave. She is its master through and through, an F-18 pilot streaking towards the sun.

In a blur, the years marked by mistakes remind Cam that even after all of this life lived in the sky, she is still human.

In a moment of hesitation, a fatal mistake echoes. Her mistake, undoubtedly. The records attribute it to circumstance, but Cam knows the truth. For all the things she has learned to forgive, the courtesy never extends to her own hands. Time, now an adversary, has burned her blind and stripped her of all opportunities except one: go back and do it all again.  Return to Top Gun and face a life that no longer feels like hers.

The question begs: are you, or are you not?

━━ 𓄼 𓄹 ━━

adria arjona
LT. CAMERON 'BERLIN' MEJIA

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘, 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

miles teller
LT. BRADLEY 'ROOSTER' BRADSHAW

𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄

riley keough
LT. NIKITA 'KIT' KASPER †

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃

callum turner
LT. BILLY 'FRITZ' AVALONE

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊

" come on baby,
you drive me crazy! "

↳for the danger zone:

001 ━ TAKEN FOR A FOOL; the strokes
002 ━ THE CHAIN; fleetwood mac
003 ━ TROUBLE'S COMING; royal blood
004 ━ HONEY; luna aura
005 ━ HIGHWAY TUNE; greta van fleet
006 ━ SHOOT TO THRILL; ac/dc

↳for the childhood best friends:

007 ━ SAN LUIS; gregory alan isakov
008 ━ IVY; frank ocean
009 ━ PRETTY BOY; lennon stella
010 ━ SUPERCUT; lorde
011 ━ MOTION SICKNESS; phoebe bridgers
012 ━ INVISIBLE STRING; taylor swift

: ̗̀➛ warnings & a disclaimer:

canon typical violence,
discussion and episodes of ptsd,
strong language & sexual themes

I do not own rights to any characters
portrayed in the top gun film series.
Cameron Mejia and all plotlines of my 
creation belong to me.

: ̗̀➛ 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋: an author's note

[001]. Before we kick this off, I just want to reiterate that 'top gun' takes the hollywood route with many of its portrayals of what is/isn't possible in a plane and in the navy.  If we wanted to get realistic, maverick himself would have been dishonorably discharged and booted from the navy a long time ago.  To compromise, we'll just all agree that 'top gun' takes place somewhere in between reality and fantasy.  This is very much a self-indulgent project 🤝

[002]. I adjusted the timeline slightly to match up cam & bradley's ages in a way that accounts for the years the pass between the films!  I also kind of stuck with the things that happen in the movie, but considering we're pulling the focus away from maverick and onto rooster, things are gonna happen a little differently.  The tropes included here are: childhood best friends to extended time apart back to close friends to lovers (slow burn, of course), now-or-never stakes, chaos (cam) x chaos enabler (bradley), etc.  

[003].  This book is dedicated to cassie because she has 100% supported the brain rot I am currently on.  Thank u for being cam's godmother.

this is also dedicated to eren, a fellow simp <3

[004].  Now that I've listened to 'I ain't worried' & 'great balls of fire' 50+ times, let's do this thing

--nat.

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐙𝐎𝐍𝐄

━━ 𓄼 𓄹 ━━