Everyone Talks About Maverick And Iceman Unofficially Adopting The Dagger Squad, But Can We Take A Second

helpless

They’re both #1

can anyone remember that post about how children write the best poems & it had an article attached showing the differences between little kids' poetry & preteens?? im desperate to find it again

I will not be taking arguments about this. 

AKA tom kazansky and his family of idiot flyboys

a lil photo detail from a fic thing that may or may not see the light of day any time soon (king of writing 20k words then deleting it) but i like the scene itself enough to make at least this small part permanent :P

think ill draw out more as a tactic to get myself to not delete the thing

Tell me a soft memory

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.

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

At sixteen he used to tell wild stories about the scar on his cheek. Wild adventures he lived with wild people during a summer camp he was never part of it. But it was a good story and girls and boys spent hours listening him talk.

At twenty seven, fresh out of Annapolis the story got wilder and bigger than life. This time it was about a crush, a dogfight and saving his teammates before ejecting and marring his face forever for them. Seresin always laughed in the louder way possibile when he heard the story and always alway bought a shot to Machado because and even this night it got more adventurous Bradshaw! What's next?

At thirty eight, in the backyard of his dads' home and with every single person important in his life, new and old family, Rooster tells all another story. It's Fanboy who asks because he's curious as a fox and he needs to know the truth, so how did it Rooster got the scar on his cheek Mav?

It was actually a very funny story, wasn't it Slider? Ice asks, half laughing and half trying to stay serious. So funny, adds Mav, that Admiral Kerner lost his babysitting privileges for three whole months!

I had to do a PowerPoint to let him be back in the house it's Rooster's answer and I still have it around somewhere Baby Goose, I was so touched.

You cried like a five years old Kerner, stop bullshitting everybody! screams Hollywood from the other side of the garden. He did and, anyway, we left that two alone for a day, Ice was picking me up at the airport and when we got back that evening Baby Goose had this enormous bandage covering half of his face, there was blood everywhere in the bathroom and Ron's shirt was as bloody as his hands. This idiots tried to save a kitten but forgot none of them actually knew how to go up or down on a tree and the poor beast was probably scared out of his mind and attacked Bradley who lost his balance and fall out of the three with Ron following him and it y'know the blood wasn't even their but of a poor bird the cat left on the base of the tree.

Everybody is laughing and honestly this version of the story? Way better than anything Rooster could have every come out with.