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sailormoonandme · 3 years

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Usagi’s Evolution as a Healer Goddess

The other day I saw a post discussing the evolution of Usagi’s fuku and it occurred to me how Eternal Sailor Moon’s costume was her first Senshi uniform to ditch the tiara.

That in turn led me to consider how that kind of makes Usagi weaker as it removes a very useful weapon for her. After all, if you include the movies, Usagi uses some variant of Moon Tiara Action in practically every season prior to Stars.

However, dwelling more upon it I realized how this tiny change was all too appropriate for Usagi’s character development.

Firstly, by supplanting the Tiara with her Moon planetary symbol, Eternal Sailor Moon more closely resembles both Queen Serenity, her own Princess Serenity form and her future self as Neo-Queen Serenity.

Since all three are objectively more powerful than Usagi typically is as Sailor Moon I think the change emphasises how she has ‘levelled up’ in her Eternal form. When combined with the angel wings, Eternal Sailor Moon shifts Usagi visually closer to her future self as NQS, which in the anime is implied to be her most powerful incarnation.* It is almost as though the visual was communicating that the Divine Miracle Magic that she’d previously drawn upon as Princess Serenity in Classic-SuperS had now become ingrained in her standard Senshi form and thus was more accessible to her.

It was in thinking of her previous efforts as Princess Serenity that I inevitably recalled her duel with Metalia/Beryl in episode 46 and realized that Eternal Sailor Moon was the first time since Classic that Usagi’s default attack was a healing technique not a destructive one.

Moon Healing Escalation was Usagi’s first healing technique but until Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss (and it’s later upgrade, Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss) it was also her only healing technique.

Between regaining healing techniques and ditching her tiara/other destructive attacks/weapons, I think this represents her subtle growth in both her power and status. After all, it is a sad fact of life that it is easier to destroy something rather than fix it, thereby making the latter far more impressive.**

This skewing towards healing power rather than destructive power is also (arguably) thematically appropriate given the nature of Sailor Moon as a female power fantasy as (rightly or wrongly) the act of healing is typically coded as feminine.

We can even take this further by examining things from the ‘opposite direction’ as it were.

Consider that in the climactic final episodes of Sailor Stars, Eternal Sailor Moon’s healing technique actually fails her when used against Galaxia. In later episodes, upon adopting her Princess Serenity form (complete with larger and more obviously angelic wings), she uses a sword to duel Galaxia.

Obviously a sword is, at least predominantly, an offensive weapon and can therefore be viewed as symbolic of aggression; let’s leave any Freudian or gendered interpretations alone for today. Her use of the sword is highly uncharacteristic (in the anime). Even her explicitly offencive weapons (like the Cutie Moon Rod or Spiral Moon Heart Rod) weren’t as clearly aggressive nor obviously violent. Desperate times calling for desperate measures? Perhaps, but we might also speculate it was her subconsciously reacting to grief. Not only can grief make you act in ways you wouldn’t normally, but a sword after all was a weapon wielded by her lover in his Prince Endymion incarnation. Her lover whom Usagi had just learned Galaxia had murdered. In other words, amidst her grief she reacts by going too hard in the other direction after healing her enemy proves ineffective.

However, when all is said and done the sword fails her.*** Ultimately is simply escalates the conflict by prompting Galaxia to become Chaos Galaxia and thereby make Usagi’s chances of victory all the slimmer. If we wished to stretch things, you could perhaps say that this is a commentary about how war and violence ultimately begets yet more war and violence.

Even if that is an over extrapolation though, it still served to emphasis the point that a sword is not befitting of Usagi, that she was doomed to lose if she continued to battle with destroying her enemy as the end goal.

In fact, her road to real victory begins when she not doesn’t attack Galaxia but makes it easier for herself to be attacked. In the end, Usagi doesn’t confront her most powerful enemy as the God-Queen of the future, the demi-goddess Princess of the distant past, the sailor-suited soldier of love and justice in the present, nor even a humble school girl.

She does it by literally stripping herself of all those things, of stripping herself of everything in fact.

Her weapons? Gone.

Her other items, like her Tiare? Gone.

Her comrades? Gone, and they’d be powerless against Galaxia anyway.

And finally, even her clothes? Gone!

Beyond the Silver Crystal (an outward visualization of her heart/soul) and the angel wings (symbolic of her role as a saviour) she is completely (but tastefully) naked.

Usagi visually and quite literally is more vulnerable than she’s ever been, even more so than on her first night as Sailor Moon.

And yet this is Usagi at her actual most powerful.

It is her distilled to her absolute essence as a person, all other trappings removed. She’d just one person showing another they will categorically not harm them, that they bear them no malice and they have nothing to hide. That openness and compassion is what ultimately enables her to connect to the good within Galaxia and pull her away from the darkness that had corrupted her.

Usagi in this moment completely fulfilled her character arc.

· In the Dark Kingdom arc Usagi destroys (or seals away depending upon your POV) Beryl/Metalia.

· In the Hell Tree arc, Usagi resolves the over all plot via a healing technique (although it is functionally similar to a destructive attack). However, that only happens because the Hell Tree both instructs Usagi to do that and because it lets her. It is the equivalent of a sickly doctor instructing a nurse on what to do to make them better. The nurse might have the power but their agency as a healer is limited.

· In the Black Moon arc, Usagi, with help, destroys Wiseman/Death Phantom.

· In the Death Busters arc, Usagi does save Hotaru and ‘purify’ her. However, like the Hell Tree, that was something Hotaru wanted. Additionally, her purification functioned as a way to heal the body of someone sick and who wanted to sacrifice themselves, not someone actually evil. The evil in question was Pharaoh 90 and it is presumed that Usagi destroyed him (although it might’ve been Hotaru or the pair of them together).

· Forgive me for skipping the Dead Moon Circus arc as Chibiusa is the real protagonist there, and Usagi’s role is chiefly as a rescuer. It therefore doesn’t really apply, although the Nehelenia mini-arc from Stars is a different story. There, Usagi was a healer again, but she did it with the help of her loved ones and with the aid of her Tiare device. Nevertheless, we can see by this point Usagi’s capacity as a healer heroine had been gradually growing until we get to the battle with Galaxia.

By the end of series, Usagi has successfully healed Galaxia and it is neither with the aid of her comrades, nor with the power of a weapon or device, nor with any instructions from her ‘patient’ or any other third party.

Additionally, Galaxia (unlike Hotaru) wasn’t someone’s who was saved from a noble self-sacrifice or had a physical ailment that needs to be addressed. In Galaxia’s case, her very soul had lost it’s way and become corrupted. She had lost who she was supposed to be and her purpose in life had been perverted.****

When combined with how powerful Galaxia always was, how Chaos and the Star Seeds empowered her further, Usagi’s victory here cannot be understated.

Her ‘patient’ was more powerful than all her other adversaries, was in need of more healing than her other ‘patients’ and was more resistant to being healed. Not to mention, since she’d directly murdered her beloved friends (and indirectly aborted her future daughter), Usagi would’ve been forgiven for not even trying to salvage Galaxia

And yet, with no weapons, no backup and just the power of her heart and soul basically, Usagi succeeded.

After Stars the idea that Usagi could heal the entire planet after a global catastrophe and reshape it into a fairy tale crystalline utopia was all too believable.

What’s healing one planet when her ability to empathise had already healed a whole galaxy?

Who needs a tiara to reduce evil to dust when you can simply convince evil to be good?

*This is arguably symbolized by baby Hotaru’s vision of NQS transforming into Eternal Sailor Moon in episode 1 of Stars.

In fact, we might argue that a low-key subplot running through all of Stars (both the Nehelenia and Galaxia portions of it) is gradually transitioning Usagi closer to the person she is destined to become as Neo-Queen Serenity, hence why the first episode features the most explicit reference to her fate as Queen since R.

**Personally I am an atheist, but nevertheless I and others like me can grasp why deities in most major religions through history weren’t simply capable of mass scale destruction, but also of essentially manipulating reality to create things too.

By that same token, it’s little surprise that perhaps the widest spread religious figure in history was Jesus Christ who rarely (if ever) engaged in aggression or destructive acts, predominantly employing divine healing powers.

I suspect the attraction of such figures to human beings lies in the fact that on some level we know that, given the right time and resources, we mere mortals would be capable of destroying anything. Given time it’s all but certain we will develop the technology to even destroy planetary bodies. On the flipside, I think we also intuitively grasp that reversing such damage, of reattaching a limb, of stanching bleeding, etc, is far more difficult if not impossible. Hence we attributed the ability to do such things to larger than life Divine Entities.

*** Now that I think of it, it’s also poignant that Usagi tries and fails to defeat Galaxia with a sword when we take Sailor Uranus into consideration.

Uranus is of course associated with her weapon, the Space Sword and, like Usagi, tried and failed to use such a weapon against Galaxia.

Giving Uranus a sword is symbolically appropriate given her role as the leader of the more aggressive branch of the Sailor Team. Having her fail against Galaxia and Usagi consequently fail by in some way ‘mimicking her tactics’ is equally symbolically appropriate. Not only because of their ideological conflict in Sailor Moon S but also their tensions in Sailor Stars itself. In both situations Usagi’s more open, less aggressive, ideology was ultimately proven correct.

Thus in using a sword against Galaxia it represented how Usagi was always doomed to fail by taking the aggressive/destructive route and how she was arguably not being true to herself in that moment.

****It’s not to dissimilar to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker now that I think about it.

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smocksinabox · 6 years

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A neural network designs Halloween costumes

It’s hard to come up with ideas for Halloween costumes, especially when it seems like all the good ones are taken. And don’t you hate showing up at a party only to discover that there’s *another* pajama cardinalfish?

I train neural networks, a type of machine learning algorithm, to write humor by giving them datasets that they have to teach themselves to mimic. They can sometimes do a surprisingly good job, coming up with a metal band called Chaosrug, a craft beer called Yamquak and another called The Fine Stranger (which now exists!), and a My Little Pony called Blue Cuss.

So, I wanted to find out if a neural network could help invent Halloween costumes. I couldn’t find a big enough dataset, so I crowdsourced it by asking readers to list awesome Halloween costumes. I got over 4,500 submissions.

The most popular submitted costumes are the classics (42 witches, 32 ghosts, 30 pirates, 22 Batmans, 21 cats (30 incl sexy cats), 19 vampires, and 17 each of pumpkins and sexy nurses). There are about 300 costumes with “sexy” in their names; some of the most eyebrow-raising include sexy anglerfish, sexy Dumbledore, sexy golden pheasant, sexy eyeball, sexy Mothra, Sexy poop emoji, Sexy Darth Vader, Sexy Ben Franklin, Sexy TARDIS, Sexy Cookie Monster, and Sexy DVORAK keyboard. In the “technical challenge” department, we have costumes like Invisible Pink Unicorn, Whale-frog, Glow Cloud, Lake Michigan, Toaster Oven, and Garnet.

All this is to say that humans are very creative, and this task was going to be tricky for a neural network. The sensible approach would be to try to use a neural network that actually knows what the words mean - there are such things, trained by reading, for example, all of Google News and figuring out which words are used in similar ways.There’s a fun demo of this here. It doesn’t have an entry for “Sexy_Gandalf” but for “sexy” it suggests “saucy” and “sassy”, and for “Gandalf” it suggests “Frodo”, “Gollum”, and “Voldemort”, so you could use this approach to go from “Sexy Gandalf” to “Sassy Voldemort”.

I wanted something a bit weirder. So, I used a neural network that learns words from scratch, letter by letter, with no knowledge of their meaning, an open-source char-rnn neural network written in Torch. I simply dumped the 4500 Halloween costumes on it, and told the neural network to figure it out.

Early in the training process, I decided to check in to see how it was doing.

Sexy sexy Dombie Sexy Cat Sexy A stare Rowan Sexy RoR A the Rog Sexy Cot Sexy Purbie Lampire Poth Rat Sexy Por Man The Wombue Pombie Con A A Cat The Ran Spean Sexy Sexy Pon Sexy Dander Sexy Cat The Gull Wot Sexy Pot Hot

In retrospect, I should have expected this. With a dataset this varied, the words the neural network learns first are the most common ones.

I checked in a little later, and things had improved somewhat. (Omitted: numerous repetitions of “sexy nurse”). Still the only thing that makes sense is the word Sexy.

Sexy The Carding Ging Farbat of the Cower Sexy The Hirler A costume Sexy Menus Sexy Sure Frankenstein’s Denter A cardian of the Pirate Ging butter Sexy the Girl Pirate

By the time I checked on the neural network again, it was not only better, but astoundingly good. I hadn’t expected this. But the neural network had found its niche: costume mashups. These are actually comprehensible, if a bit hard to explain:

Punk Tree Disco Monster Spartan Gandalf Starfleet Shark A masked box Martian Devil Panda Clam Potato man Shark Cow Space Batman The shark knight Snape Scarecrow Gandalf the Good Witch Professor Panda Strawberry shark Vampire big bird Samurai Angel lady Garbage Pirate firefighter Fairy Batman

Other costumes were still a bit more random.

Aldonald the Goddess of the Chicken Celery Blue Frankenstein Dancing Bellyfish Dragon of Liberty A shark princess Statue of Witch Cupcake pants Bird Scientist Giant Two butter The Twin Spider Mermaid The Game of Nightmare Lightbare Share Bat The Rocky Monster Mario lander Spork Sand Statue of pizza The Spiding hood A card Convention Sailor Potter Shower Witch The Little Pond Spice of pokeman Bill of Liberty A spock Count Drunk Doll of Princess Petty fairy Pumpkin picard Statue of the Spice of the underworker

It still was fond of using made-up words, though. You’d be the only one at the party dressed as whatever these are.

Sparra A masked scorby-babbersy Scormboor Magic an of the foand tood-computer A barban The Gumbkin Scorbs Monster A cat loory Duck The Barboon Flatue doctor Sparrow Plapper Grankenstein The Spongebog Minional marty clown Count Vorror Rairol Mencoon A neaving hold Sexy Avical Ster of a balana Aly Huntle starber pirate

And it ended up producing a few like this.

Sports costume Sexy scare costume General Scare construct

The reason? Apparently someone decided to help out by entering an entire costume store’s inventory. (”What are you supposed to be?” “Oh, I’m Mens Deluxe IT Costume - Size Standard.”)

There were also some like this:

Rink Rater Ginsburg A winged boxer Ginsburg Bed ridingh in a box Buther Ginsburg Skeleton Ginsburg Zombie Fire Cith Bader Ginsburg

Because someone had entered about 50 variations on Ruth Bader Ginsberg puns (Ruth Tater Ginsberg, Sleuth Bader Ginsber, Rock Paper Ginsberg).

It invented some awesome new superheroes/supervillains.

Glow Wonder Woman The Bunnizer Ladybog Light man Bearley Quinn Glad woman robot Werewolf super Pun Super of a bog Space Pants Barfer buster pirate Skull Skywolk lady Skynation the Goddess Fred of Lizard

And oh, the sexy costumes. Hundreds of sexy costumes, yet it never quite got the hang of it.

Sexy Scare Sexy the Pumpkin Saxy Pumpkins Sexy the Pirate Sexy Pumpkin Pirate Sexy Gumb Man Sexy barber Sexy Gargles Sexy humblebee Sexy The Gate Sexy Lamp Sexy Ducty monster Sexy conchpaper Sexy the Bumble Sexy the Super bass Pretty zombie Space Suit sexy Drangers Sexy the Spock

You bet there are bonus names - and oh please go read them because they are so good and it was so hard to decide which ones to fit into the main article. Includes the poop jokes. You’re welcome.

I’ve posted the entire dataset as open-source on GitHub.

And you can contribute more costumes, for a possible future neural net upgrade (no email address necessary).

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aiweirdness · 7 years

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A neural network designs Halloween costumes

It's hard to come up with ideas for Halloween costumes, especially when it seems like all the good ones are taken. And don't you hate showing up at a party only to discover that there's *another* pajama cardinalfish?

All this is to say that humans are very creative, and this task was going to be tricky for a neural network. The sensible approach would be to try to use a neural network that actually knows what the words mean - there are such things, trained by reading, for example, all of Google News and figuring out which words are used in similar ways. There’s a fun demo of this here. It doesn’t have an entry for “Sexy_Gandalf” but for “sexy” it suggests “saucy” and “sassy”, and for “Gandalf” it suggests “Frodo”, “Gollum”, and “Voldemort”, so you could use this approach to go from “Sexy Gandalf” to “Sassy Voldemort”.

Early in the training process, I decided to check in to see how it was doing.

In retrospect, I should have expected this. With a dataset this varied, the words the neural network learns first are the most common ones.

I checked in a little later, and things had improved somewhat. (Omitted: numerous repetitions of “sexy nurse”). Still the only thing that makes sense is the word Sexy.

Sexy The Carding Ging Farbat of the Cower Sexy The Hirler A costume Sexy Menus Sexy Sure Frankenstein's Denter A cardian of the Pirate Ging butter Sexy the Girl Pirate

Other costumes were still a bit more random.

It still was fond of using made-up words, though. You’d be the only one at the party dressed as whatever these are.

And it ended up producing a few like this.

Sports costume Sexy scare costume General Scare construct

The reason? Apparently someone decided to help out by entering an entire costume store’s inventory. (”What are you supposed to be?” “Oh, I'm Mens Deluxe IT Costume - Size Standard.”)

There were also some like this:

Rink Rater Ginsburg A winged boxer Ginsburg Bed ridingh in a box Buther Ginsburg Skeleton Ginsburg Zombie Fire Cith Bader Ginsburg

Because someone had entered about 50 variations on Ruth Bader Ginsberg puns (Ruth Tater Ginsberg, Sleuth Bader Ginsber, Rock Paper Ginsberg).

It invented some awesome new superheroes/supervillains.

And oh, the sexy costumes. Hundreds of sexy costumes, yet it never quite got the hang of it.

You bet there are bonus names - Become a supporter of AI Weirdness to read them, and they are so good and it was so hard to decide which ones to fit into the main article. Includes the poop jokes. You’re welcome.

I’ve posted the entire dataset as open-source on GitHub.

And you can contribute more costumes, for a possible future neural net upgrade (no email address necessary).

#neural networks #char-rnn #halloween #halloween costumes #sexy

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into-september · 5 years

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Banana Fish episode 20-21

The short version is that the only things I even like about this show any longer is Max and Yut Lung.

So chalk this up to the proud tradition of watching-stuff-just-to-complain-about-it, because I've invested enough time in this show to be talking about it at length anyway. There's going to be too much to say about its existence as an adaptation, about the timing of the release, about the inexplicable fact that they updated the setting but didn't update the content. If sullen complaints are going to be what it takes for me to get through the last four episodes, then complain I shall, and I'll be sharing it with the internet so that maybe some other lost soul might find comfort in it.

Sailor Moon's ending was spectacular, by the way, by which I mean that I would never have gotten over it if I'd watched the show when it was actually airing and I was actually smack in the middle of the intended audience. But I really loved it a lot okay, and certainly more than this contemporary.

Seriously, guys. Go watch Sailor Moon instead. It's funny and charming and way more entertaining and there are ACTUAL GAY PEOPLE BEING GAY AND SAYING THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND INDISPUTABLY BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP AND ALSO WOMEN.

Oh, screw it all. I just realised that there have been no named women on this show who were around for more than two episodes (Max's wife and Ash's stepmum. Shorter's sister was at least named in the manga, and possibly Dr. Vegetable's housekeeper who was really working for Yut Lung was, too). I'll be re-watching this with my sister come Christmas break, and I swear I'll COUNT the number of women who aren't background extras because the last woman I recall having lines the nurse who tried to kill Ash some six or seven episodes ago.

EPISODE 20

- ugh WHY did you have to sully Canon's good name by putting it into this anime and putting it into DINO'S PARTY of all places. Maybe the cellist owed him money.

- I'm pretty sure this whole thing about people adressing Dino as "Monsieur" was just something the mangaka came up with halfway through and introduce because she thought it was cool, and then the anime didn't realise that adaptations are where you take the chance to fix the fuckups of the source material

- Cute how this is America and a mob-boss with more enemies than George Soros and yet no-one thought to pat down the staff and oh, Eiji, showing off that gun is not a good idea if you're trying to be undercover. Mostly I'm just disappointed that the show thinks it needs to remind the viewers that this gun existed, as if EIJI of all characters requesting one at the end of last episode is something we just forget

- Eiji runs at Dino with a gun drawn, is shot down before he gets within ten metres of him. Dino is arrested and is locked up for life. Max adopts Ash, who goes on to use his genius to find a way to cure climate change and cancer. Ibe returns to Japan owing Eiji's family some explanation. Yut Lung lets go of the ghosts of his past. Sing lets go of avenging Shorter. I can quit this anime reasonably satisfied, and turn my attention to re-reading the No. 6 novels and probably moan about the weird pacing or something. WELL THAT WAS A HAPPY ENDING BOY AM I GLAD THERE ARE NOT FOUR EPISODES AND TWENTY MINUTES LEFT OF THIS SHOW OR NOTHING HA HA HA ha

- And there goes Yut Lung with his Eiji hateboner. I KNOW it won't happen but let me hope for the miracle where he gets his wish granted and gets to shoot him in the face personally.

- Yeah Sing, IDK, maybe someone's should've told the civillian to stay home or at least wait behind the wheel of the getaway car so that someone who had fired a gun before could've not missed the child rapist trying to take over the country standing a metre and half away from him.

- Also: Most anticlimatic shootout ever. I thinkthey spent more time talking about the super important party last episode than on showing us the super important party in this one.

- WELL FOR SOMETHING THAT IS GENUINELY INTRIGUING: How upset Yut Lung is about Blanca's betrayal and how emotionally invested he is in whatever the hell it is he wants with Ash. I'm pretty sure he's in a position to get rid of whichever brothers of his he hadn't already killed, and whatever reason he has for cooperating with Dino, it sure as hell isn't because he LIKES him. So why exactly he's got such a personal vendetta against Ash is pretty much the only thing I honestly care about at this point.

- I like this entire "oniichan" thing between Ash and Eiji, and probably for all the wrong reasons. Just let me compare it to Digimon Frontier, which similarly established the "Takuya-oniichan" dynamic between Takuya (parted from his younger brother) and Tomoki (parted from his older one). Was it profound, on any level? No. Was the relationship between Takuya and Tomoki notable outside of it? No. But the fact that they on some level treated each other as the brothers from which they were parted gave their relationship this little flavour of some more profound psychological issues at hand, even if it was probably just to foreshadow and highlight the Kouji-Kouichi disaster. And even if it's a stretch to apply the same to Ash and Eiji, it would at least explain something if the two of them saw each other as the absent family members: If Ash saw Eiji as a chance to have a Griffin-who-lived, if Eiji saw Ash as subtstitute for his younger sister, then that would go a long way in explaining why the hell they're so irrationally invested in each other's safekeeping. I mean, it makes absolutel no sense because even goddamn Digimon Frontier had more elaborate sibling relationships than Banana Fish has, but let me pretend a bit, okay? Because even oniichan jokes lend more narrative logic than the absolute silence that has been entertained about the love that dared not speak its name in 1892 but if you're going to tell that omg cencorship, LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THIS AIRED ON JAPANESE TV IN 19 FUCKING 92

youtube

- Oosa still lives on in our memories

- Oh good, I can appreciate Ash just waking up in time to instantly tear into someone for not being a feral genius child like him

- Eiji takes off on another ill-adviced suicide mission, and Cain speaks for all of us when he knocks Ash out

- Not that I question Cain's decision to have Ash tied up on the bed here, but ouch being tied up on beds is not the thing this boy needs to experience ever

- Other things to be counting upon the re-watch: Ash's body count, now increased with at least one

- On the one hand: How the hell did he just get into that museum just like that. I mean, surely there must be guards? Alarms? Locks on the doors that require more than blunt gun-induced force to open?

But on the other hand: IS THIS ZOOTROPOLIS OR IS THIS ZOOTROPOLIS and I'm fully on board with this if it's going to end with Ash pretending to be hit with Banana fish and fake-killing Eiji in front of Dino's eyes while secretly recording his premature bragging about his evil plans for using this drug to take over the world

- I can't believe I'm seriously hoping they shoot Eiji. What have this show reduced me to. I used to like him.

- oh good, I was hoping that Ash would just shove Yut Lung head first down the stairs and for once the show did not disappoint

EPISODE 21

I don't think "torture porn" is the right description for this story, and I'm getting the definite impression that The Manga Is Better, but someone being lippy in other fora means that I've got some expectations that I've no doubt will come about, given the story's previous track record. But my orchestra is having the Christmas programme from hell tomorrow and I sure won't be doing this after getting home from that past midnight, so let's just get it over with, shall we.

- Not to get into the fandom's internal debates or anything here, but Eiji ridiculing his sister's doki-doki good luck charm is a pretty good indication of the status of Eiji/Ash and "super canon confirmation" is not it

- I don't know the Japanese word for "hitman" but I sure perked up at recognising it here anyway. Thank you, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, a far dumber anime that was ultimately a far greater joy to watch, and which also had a better track record at depicting gay men than Banana Fish has this far, with a good 100% of them being depicted as a) relatively nice guys since they’re the allies of the hero, b) not rapists, c) not pedophiles.

- My god is Sing actually going to have some plot relevance what is this trickery

- I just realised that we never learn enough about Eiji's babysitters for their names to be worth remembering. Because I actually do think these names were mentioned at some point, but don't ask me what they were. As far as I can tell, they're Scrawny Guy, Black Guy Who Was Somehow White In The Manga, and Not!Oosa

- In no news, I suppose, Yut Lung is seriously the only thing I'm enjoying about this show all the time Max isn't around, and I'm immensly enjoying his getting his own hands dirty and also his hear being wild and free to symbolise his deteriorating mental control

- Sing's plot relevance lasted for a full minute and half

- DADDY IS BACK

- And now also a sugar daddy. I approve.

- Oh this darling show, this is... what, the third? Yeah, the second or third time it's mentioned gay men, and all of them have been when showing us child rapists. Such representation, much progress.

- The one guy I'd LIKE to see Ash kill, and Max stops him. Boo.

- Ash kill count: +1

- It's sad how they just mentioned the French Foreign Legion and my interest just perked 20%, isn't it

- Max goes down like Dr. Marco and Ash, couldn't you just... you know... CALL HIM, THIS IS 2018, YOU HAVE SMARTPHONES

- Ash kill count +2

- A woman? In MY Banana Fish???

- Jesus, I completely forgot that Max is a goddamn Iraq veteran

#banana fish spoilers #sailor moon #digimon frontier #hakata tonkotsu ramens #banana fish #let's watch cartoons

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gloves94 · 6 years

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White Holes [Cassian Andor] [1/10]

Warnings: None Pairings: Cassian Andor/OC Summary: Captain Cassian Andor was an Officer of Rebel Intelligence for the Alliance. An emotionless tool. There was nothing more to his life than following orders and working for the Resistance. Hell! His only friend was an Imperial droid named K-2SO. So what happens when he is struck by a love at first sight and meets Dr. Lya Stryker? Will their story have a happy ending? (CassianxOC)

My fanfiction: M A S T E R L I S T

The sun rose to see another day on the moon also known as, Yavin 4, and so did the injured man in the medical ward's bed. He could feel his whole body aching. He felt as if he had just been torn up, shredded and consumed by the wilderness of the galaxy. He opened his dry mouth in an attempt to speak, instead came out a painful groan. His free hand reached for his stomach which he clenched in horrendous pain. He couldn't remember what had happened. The last thing his memory had recollected was the almost ship crash as he was doing an emergency landing back at the Rebel base. He had been lucky to avoid one of those massive pyramids that the ancient Massassi had built on this moon.

"Ah, you have woken." A smooth voice said from somewhere in the room.

He found himself momentarily blinded by the bright light above; his eyes focused on a blurry figure before him. He suddenly felt a strange sensation. As a cold hand on his burning forehead. He couldn't help but initially flinch at the foreign touch, but somehow he managed to relax at the touch. He emitted harsh breath and his eyebrows knitted. Despite his pain, he could also feel that a fluid IV was attached to his arm, pumping much needed cool fluids and nutrients into his weak body.

"Rest." Despite the relaxed tone, the statement had almost sounded like a command to him. "Rest" The voice repeated.

In defeat, won over by exhaustion he allowed his eyes drop once again. He couldn't help but wonder if this would be the last time they shut. He couldn't go like this. Had he given his entire life up for the rebellion just for it to end like this? The hand briefly rested on his forehead once again, and a pair of long fingers slipped to tangle his knotted brown hair.

Lux, a female nurse, and doctor in training observed the Doctor, her mentor, carefully. "Place him on some antipyretics," the Doctor began. "I want him in intense observation, and I want his fluids carefully regulated. Don't want him to lose his strength." She held a deep breath and observed the features of the man before her. He had long dark eyelashes, an unshaven face and dark shaggy hair which almost reached his shoulders. It appeared as if he had dug his own grave. He wasn't well. She closed her eyes and sighed. At this point, it was best to trust that the Force would do what was right and just. She could feel it was strong with him. Part of her knew he would make it. She adjusted her white lab coat before picking up the patient's clipboard and heading out.

"Let me know if he awakens, again," she tossed back to her younger apprentice.

There it was again- the blinding light. The one that seemed to burn past your eyelids and into the back of your brain. The Captain couldn't help but wonder if this was the afterlife? If it was, he certainly didn't feel at peace or any ease.

Mixed voices rang in his ears. The aching pain in his stomach, now more bearable served as a gruesome reminder of his current mortal status.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, this time with much more ease. He blinked away the blurriness and saw that before him stood two women and a man. One of the women was speaking. He didn't listen. He couldn't. The Captain found himself lost in a pair of azure violet eyes. He had never met a creature with such peculiar colored eyes. He noted that her mouth continued moving. He couldn't make out the words. She wore the formal attire that most medics in the Rebel Base wear, a white lab coat over her brown clothes. Her brown hair was styled short to her shoulders and was messily held up in a fat bun behind the nape of her neck. Her brown bands were nearly combed asymmetrically framing her eyes nicely.

At that moment he was struck.

Feeling extremely self-conscious, the hospitalized man ran a hand down his sharp jawline trailing his unshaven face. He couldn't bear removing his eyes from the intense violet ones before him. He was so aghast that he didn't even realize when she was beginning to explain his perilous situation to him. The Doctor revealed that he had been poisoned on a mission and that thanks to the Force he had made it just in time for them to inject him with the antidote.

"...Do you understand the gravity of your situation?" Adair, the male apprentice, and nurse repeated tapping on a clipboard impatiently. There was an uncomfortable silence in the small curtained room and the air filled with sudden tension. The Captain had a pair of bottomless, dark, eyes that seemed to peer into your soul. "Captain Andor?" Lux inquired with a small voice. The Doctor kept her eyes fixed on his not faltering for one moment. Both of the nurses looked at the Doctor concerned. They couldn't help but wonder if the patient had maintained brain damage from the crash. Regardless she kept her eyes glued to his dark ones. He didn't respond. Instead, he removed his hand from his beard, eyes still focused. It was hopeless. This had never happened to Cassian before. He had never had the use for friendships or any type relationship before. They were of no use to him. The closest thing he had o a friend was a droid named K-2SO, it wasn't even human. He was a Rebel. He had a vital cause to work for: freedom. Whatever relationships he had had in the past had all been short-lived.

'Fuck it...' he thought to himself. He felt a stirring inside him something consume his consciousness.

"Go out with me." Were the first words he uttered to her. For a moment the had forgotten the aching pain that trembled in his stomach. And the pulsating headache that made him want to rip his head off. Adair looked away with wide eyes attempting to ignore the awkward tension in the room. Lux blushed vibrantly and brought a hand to her face to hide her growing smile. They both turned to face the Doctor once again who had recuperated from the surprise and kept her cool. The corner of her lips turned upwards into a charming smile and she shoved her hands into her deep pockets as she shook her head from side to side. 'Well, this is a first...' She thought. "Captain Andor-" she spoke carefully in an attempt to correct the situation. "Cassian." He corrected her, and she noted he had a thick accent which belonged to a distant land. "As flattered as I am, you don't even know my name." She said still wearing that small smile. He kept his eyes alert and read the tag on her white coat. "Dr. Stryker," he said slowly. "Go out with me." He repeated determined. She observed him cautiously for a moment. Maybe he did have brain damage. "No," she said with a smile before walking away, still with that coy smile worn on her face. Her apprentices followed after her snickering at the idea of the usually serious doctor having such a bold suitor.

It became almost like a soap opera.

The scene would be reenacted every single time the Doctor would walk into the small curtain room to make her rounds. And every single time she would only shake her head with a smile. There had to be something wrong with this man's head. That crash landing hadn't been good for him. Cassian wouldn't give up. Whenever he asked it was never a request; it was always a demand for something he needed. He wondered if this was what it was like when sailors fell eyes upon the lost sirens in the depths of space. It was a lost cause. An obsession. He had been struck by an arrow and starred into the sun blindly. There was no way he was letting go now. He could remember the tales that his father told the mother he never met. "I saw her, and it was like time stopped." He would say to Cassian in his tender youth. "That's how I knew we had to be together."

Regardless, her answer never changed. He persisted.

"As flattered as I am, do you know how unprofessional that would be of me?" was one of her excuses. "Captain Andor, I'm afraid you are lucid," was another response. "I said no yesterday, and the day before and the day before. What makes you think I will say yes today?" She would always ask with a playful smile. "Captain Andor, if you already know what the answer will be, why do you keep asking?" She asked as he struggled to sit up in the uncomfortable bed. She sat close listening to his heartbeat with her stethoscope. There was no other excuse for his sudden infatuation "You must've hit your head really hard." She commented as she examined his cranium. Surprisingly he was quiet for a moment. The nurses had come to enjoy their interactions and would often merely attend to witness the fruitless attempts of the captain. Their unwanted presence was greeted with a severe glare from the Doctor and a "Have you finished your reports?" "Because there is always hope," he said calmly as he reached for her warm hand. The Doctor noted that despite the calmness in his voice his heart was aggressively hammering through her stethoscope. She saw the determined glint in his eyes. His calloused hand squeezed hers. She removed both of her hands from his person. She merely attributed his infatuation to something called Florence Nightingale syndrome. It wasn't uncommon for injured individuals to feel a sudden attraction for their caretakers. "Cassian," she began slowly. He looked at her surprised noticing that she had addressed by his first name. "Listen," she said reaching and placing her stethoscope around his head. She was about to speak again but was interrupted by her pager. She ignored it and resumed. "I want you to listen to something-" She said picking up the mouth of the stethoscope.

Again, that darn buzzing. It was an emergency. Embarrassed at the fact that petty flirting had gotten in the way of her medical duties. Without another word she bolted out of the curtained room Cassian mentally cursed as he spilled back into his hospital bed. He starred at the off lightbulbs above his head that he had grown used to. i'What was she going to show him?'/i He ran his hands over his face in frustration and slid deep into the covers. At this point, he was no stranger to failure.

The following afternoon, Dr. Stryker was making rounds as she usually did. However, today was different. She could feel the bottom of her stomach flipping with anxiety. She inhaled a deep breath and braced herself before swatting away the curtain that served as the door to Captain Andor's room, and she could feel her anxiety turning into panic at the terrible sight.

He was gone.

Panic surged through her.

He was gone.

His bed empty, sheets tangled. There was a terribly sick man wondering around the medical ward unsupervised. She immediately brought up her pager to her lips and alerted the other medics in the medical ward. This wasn't possible, he hadn't been discharged. After being in such delicate condition, it was compromising for the entire camp and especially for him to be casually walking about.

Especially after being poisoned and almost dying...

"Nurse!" she shouted as she ran out of the room breathlessly. "Nurse!"

When she reached the outside of the room, she was suddenly brought to a halt. In front of her, barely standing on his own feet stood Cassian leaning against the wall weakly, He wore a pair of beige hospital robes which contrasted with his shaggy appearance. On the one hand, he held a bouquet of bioluminescent violet orchid flowers, one of the native flowers of Yavin 4; he approached her stumbling on his bare feet. She rushed towards him, and he grasped onto her waist tightly allowing his weight to collapse on hers. She kept an equally tight grip on his arms keeping him on his toes. His grip tightened when he realized how close he was and he offered the flowers to her accidentally slapping her chin with them.

"S-sorry..." He apologized nervously. Once again he cursed at himself inside his head. "Idiot!" She exclaimed unhappily. He could've gotten hurt! How could he be so careless?! She called for assistance once again.

"Lya Stryker, will you go out with me. Please?" He asked with a smirk. She took the flowers in one hand and tossed them over her shoulder carelessly.

"Lya Stryker, will you go out with me?" he repeated as she carried him back to his hospital bed.

"Lya Stryker-" He was about to ask one last third time.

He wasn't going to give up. Every single time his eyes met her vibrant ones he felt it. That knot in his throat that fight or flight instinct kicking up inside of him stirring his stomach and usually focused emotions.

"So how did you get her to notice you?" He had asked his father that same day. The man scratched his chin and smiled at the memory of his late wide. "Just- if you ever find her son. Don't give up." He had smiled down at his son and patted his back shoulder.

It was rare to have such tender moments during the time of war. Perhaps that's why he remembered it so well. It was before the Clone Wars. Before his father accompanies his mother in the afterlife.

He was taken back when what sounded like agreement reached his ears. "Fine!" She exclaimed. "Maybe." She fumed hands on her hips. Her eyes focused on him with a sharp glare. This man... She wanted to ask if he was like this with every single woman he met.

A smirk edged on Cassian's face at the look on her face.

Perhaps, a maybe was better than a no. No?

AN: Let me know what you think I always appreciate feedback!

Chapter 1: [Here] Chapter 2: [Here]

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ultraheydudemestuff · 5 years

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Public Square Recreational Park Main and High Streets Mount Vernon, OH 43050 The Public Square, at the intersection of Main and High Streets, has been a focal point of downtown Mount Vernon, OH, since the city was platted in 1805, and has become an important gathering place for the community. When the founding fathers platted the main streets of Mount Vernon, the Public Square, donated to the city by founding father Benjamin Butler, was nothing but open land reserved for produce markets and other social gatherings, with a public well located in the center where the Soldiers' Monument currently stands. In 1863, Clement L. Vallandigham, perhaps one of the most noted Copperheads of the Civil War, gave his famous anti-war speech on the northwest corner of West High Street and the Public Square, near where the High Restaurant currently stands. In the center of the Square is a small park landscaped with grass, shade trees, flowerbeds, walkways, and benches. The small central park was likely created shortly after the Soldiers' Monument was erected in 1876. This iconic monument sits in the middle of a roundabout of the Public Square at the intersection of U.S. Route 36 and State Routes 3, 13, and 229. Designed by locally prominent attorney and gentleman architect Henry B. Curtis, it is a symbol of the Civil War's lasting impact on the citizens of Mount Vernon and the surrounding communities. In 1863, a group of young women from Mount Vernon created the Young Ladies' Union League. This organization wanted to erect a monument to memorialize the soldiers and sailors of Knox County, and instigated several fundraising ventures for this purpose. The Soldiers' Monument, under the efforts of what became the Mount Vernon Ladies' Monument Association, was erected and officially dedicated on July 4, 1877, to honor the men of Knox County who fought for the Union in the Civil War, in remembrance of those who perished, and in celebration for those who survived. This statue is the reason that the Public Square is sometimes referred to as Monument Square. Rendered in gray Vermont granite, the statue consists of a square base supporting a tall, fluted column with a composite order capital, which in turn supports the standing figure of a life-size Union soldier looking reflectively toward the South. All four sides of the base are carved with inscriptions commemorating the men of Knox County who gave their lives for the Union cause during the "Great Rebellion." On top of each corner of the base is a small pyramid of cannonballs, also executed in granite. The monument, erected by a local marble works firm under the name of I. B. McKenna, is surrounded by a short, ornate wrought iron fence. The monument's hollowed cornerstone serves as a 19th-century time capsule. In 1883, Charles Cooper donated a copper fountain on the southeast corner of Public Square Park to further enhance the growing beauty of the Public Square. This beautiful, ornate copper fountain lends a touch of grace to the Public Square. It rests in a large cement basin with a small, elegant wrought iron fence. The fountain consists of three leaf-like tiers of diminishing size, with a central spout at the top. It is carved with various birds, frogs, sea horses, plants, and other elements inspired by nature. Cooper was the founder of a local ironworks that transformed, over several decades, into the internationally prominent Cooper Industries of the present day. Brothers Charles and Elias Cooper established the Mount Vernon Iron Works in 1834, which mainly produced plows, hollow ware, and other cast iron products necessary and desirable within a farming community. By 1840, the brothers added threshing machines to their line of products. In 1842, they added sawmills and steam engines, which would ultimately become their specialty item. Charles Cooper served as a member of the Mount Vernon City Council in the years 1845, 1849, and 1850, and was also one of the early board members for the Knox County National Bank. During the early half of the 20th century, many citizens, including some members of the city council, had an unusual idea to enhance the recreational aspects of the Public Square by turning the base of the Cooper Fountain into an aquarium. However, the intensive maintenance necessary by having fish in the fountain is likely the reason that the Cooper Fountain is no longer the Cooper "Aquarium." In 1990, the fountain was sent to the original manufacturer for restoration, which included recreating the upper-most tier. When the fountain returned completely restored to its location on the southeast corner of the Public Square, it had a brand new cement base, with the same wrought iron fence that has surrounded the fountain for decades. The park was enlarged from a circle to a square with rounded corners sometime in the mid-1890s. In addition to the Soldiers' Monument, which commemorates the Civil War veterans and casualties, a brick Veteran's Walk of Honor and a Korean War Monument further sanctify the park as a place of reflection. It is also an educational place. Several interactive kiosks are present to provide information on the trees, plants, and other significant items within the park, including a grindstone. An Ohio Historical Marker has been placed on the north side of the park to commemorate Civil War Nurse Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, otherwise known as "Mother Bickerdyke," who was born near downtown Mount Vernon. The Public Square is a unique feature to Mount Vernon, as it is the only round-about in the county.

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hellomissmabel · 7 years

Text

The death and life of James B. Barnes (6) - the end

MASTERLIST

Pairing: Bucky x reader

Warnings: ANGST, mentions of dying and death of a loved one and FLUFFY TIMES.

Word count: 2.053

Summary: After finding Y/N’s body, Bucky makes amends with his loss. Final part of the @hunters-from-stark-tower movie challenge!

Part 1: the sailing competition

Part 2: the accident

Part 3: the fresh start

Part 4: the first date

Part 5: the high water

She doesn’t recall much, as was to be expected. Not soon after I reached Y/N, a chopper located our whereabouts and a rescue team was sent to our aid. They found our entangled bodies, clinging together in the space between life and death, our laboured breaths the only sign they needed to pursue with our extraction. Not even the paramedics managed to properly separate us afterwards as the freezing cold had been responsible for joining our bodies like a statue made of stone.

The hospital staff was so kind as to give us one shared room so I could monitor her recovery myself. Y/N almost died and so did I but with every waking moment she’s gaining her strengths back. She just has to open her eyes for me once so I know she’s still with me, that I won’t lose her a second time.

It all still feels so unreal but luckily I have Tony by my side to guide me through the aftermath. Imagine me having to explain to the cops how I knew exactly where to find her, that I talked to her ghosts the night before. They would’ve sent me straight to the asylum if it wasn’t for Tony.

We’ve been spending a lot of time together, waiting together for Y/N to wake up. Tony tells her stories of his glory days when he used to be the star sailor and how he met Pepper in a similar fashion as Y/N and I did.

He spoke of how Pepper initially posed a threat to him (“I might swear like a sailor but she was always the better one”) but that he learnt to put his pride aside and finally ask her out. I must admit I teared up a little inside when he talked about how she eventually lost the battle against cancer and we cried together at our losses, the memory of both Pepper and Steve still very much alive.

While we were away, Nat went into labour because she could not cope with the stress of not knowing whether her best friend had survived the storm. I apologised profusely to both Nat and Clint for breaking them apart during what is considered one of the most important moments in life, but they assured me that I should not feel guilty as the baby was born without any complications and is as healthy as can be which is what matters most.

Three weeks later and the doctors decided to keep Y/N in an induced comatose state to minimise any potential brain damage. I was also there when they made the decision to put her off life support to see if her lungs would be able to breathe on their own. Fortunately Y/N is a strong woman and if it wasn’t for her determined spirit, I would’ve given up on life a lot sooner. It’s only fair I did the same for her.

Many sleepless nights later, I am making my way towards the docks where I know she’ll be sitting patiently, her thoughtful eyes following every ripple and every wave as the sea beckons her. I understand the temptation all too well, the longing for the water to engulf me with all its might as I conquer the tides with my boat. But none of that would ever be my main priority as long as there’s Y/N. I will always put her first.

“Hi,” I say shyly, lowering the bouquet of soft pink roses and taking a quick peek at the stunning woman in front of me. She’s staring achingly at the sailboats that have gathered today for another competition, pining over the fact she will not be able to participate for a long time to come.

“Hi,” she offers back gingerly, unsure of how to react. It’s been a couple hours since she was released from the hospital, her memory still ragged and full with holes and yet here she is, returning to her first love, the sea. Nonetheless, she’s still got questions marks written all over her beautiful face and oh, how do I wish I could provide her with the answers she so desires.

I give her a kind smile even though she does not return the gesture, her lips curling downwards as she continues to focus on the boats passing by. “I stopped by the hospital to see you but the nurse told me you’d been released earlier this morning.”

“Yeah,” she sighs, carding her slender fingers through her hair, loosening the tight bun holding her luscious curls captive and I watch with rapture as it cascades down her shoulders like a waterfall. “I didn’t have the heart to call you, Bucky. I just,” she sighs again, gathering her thoughts, “I just don’t know. I don’t know anything, I don’t remember anything and it’s killing me.”

“I can tell you what happened, if you want me to.” Bucky takes a few tentative steps towards her and Y/N slowly inches back, still on guard after all that’s happened.

Clint and Tony filled her in on the conditions in which she was found, sticking like glue to Bucky’s body warmth. Yet her mind cannot wrap itself around the fact that she actually made it out alive and all thanks to Bucky. Somehow she is convinced she shouldn’t be here at all, that the time had come for her to join her parents in heaven.

He holds out the roses for her and she accepts them with a small smile lightening up her Y/E/C eyes. “Please,” she breathes out languidly as the aroma of the freshly cut roses invades her nostrils and tickles her senses awake. “I don’t know how much longer I can take it.”

Unbeknownst to Bucky, Y/N does have some kind of recollection of their date. Unwilling to give in to the preposterous idea that it was in fact all real, she simply chooses to believes it all was a very vivid, very lucid dream. Yet here he is, James Buchanan Barnes, with his pleading puppy dog eyes asking her if she wants to hear his story, their story. And she just knows, deep down, that it’s all true.

“You remember that night at the harbour?”

Y/N nods shyly, her eyes locking with Bucky’s and a wave of familiarity washes both of them clean of their insecurities. “The next day, you set out to sail and got stuck in a storm which threw you way off course.”

Her eyes start to gloss over with the tears of remembrance. It must’ve been hell for her, all alone and with a malfunctioning radio, no-one to reach out to and nowhere else to go. Completely disoriented and utterly frightened.

“This might sound weird, but I promise you I’m not joking,” Bucky begins again. “But I saw your ghost that evening.”

Bucky continues to tell a slightly startled Y/N how they had spent hours on end talking, eating, drinking wine, kissing and eventually making love. It was all so bittersweet but that doesn’t make it any less real.

Y/N’s soul fought her way back to Bucky, unaware of the whereabouts of her actual body. Her subconscious had guided her back to the one person that would be able to help her. Every single detail Bucky recalls very intensely and the longer Bucky’s words fill her ears, the more Y/N’s resolve starts to crumble.

“How do I know you’re not crazy like everyone says you are?,” she queries and Bucky would be lying if the questions doesn’t sting a little. But he understands where it’s coming from. She’s not quite willing to give up on the world as she knows it and indulge herself with the knowledge that there is in fact a world in between. That she was, in fact, dying.

“That night, you said that your parents’ death hit you harder than anything else. You recited a poem to me, you want me to repeat it for you?”

“Bucky,” she exhales slowly before nodding. “If you must.”

Taking in a deep breath, fingers crossed that he gets the words right, Bucky’s voice carries through Y/N’s bones, cutting her in half and reaching her very core with fate’s tendrils.

“Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards. E.E. Cummings.”

As soon as Bucky utters the last word, Y/N jumps into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and Bucky cranes his neck in order to place a chaste kiss on her temple, whispering countless I love you’s into her ear.

She finally remembers.

ONE YEAR LATER

Everyone’s at their Sunday’s best, per request of Y/N and Bucky. It’s their special day after all.

“Come on, you slug!,” Bucky calls out to Clint who’s cradling his baby girl in his arms, followed closely by Nat, showing off her little baby bump. “Or has fatherhood turned you into a pussy? You’re sure as hell going fast here, man, with a second one already on the way.”

“Watch out, Barnes,” Clint lifts a playful finger at Bucky, “Or do you want me to spill the beans to Y/N about the confession you made at your bachelor party?”

Bucky swallows visibly, laughing away Clint’s empty threat, knowing that his best friend would never tell Y/N just for how long Bucky had been pining over her before he finally had the guts to actually talk to her. But he’s not willing to take that risk because there’s no way in hell Y/N isn’t going to let him live that down for the rest of his life. “Cut the crap, Barton,” he chuckles nervously.

Friskily slapping his shoulder, Clint resumes his place by Nat’s side, gently rubbing his hand over her swollen tummy and shooting Y/N a smug grin when they make eye contact. “You look like an angel,” Clint comments on Y/N’s wedding dress.

“It’s so absolutely you to get married and start your trip around the world merely two hours later, leaving all your friends to celebrate without the bride and groom,” Natasha pipes up, wiping away a single tear so it doesn’t crack the strong front she’s trying to keep up for her friend, both of them realising they won’t see each other again for a quite a long time to come.

Y/N looks back at Bucky, her now husband, patiently waiting for her on the deck. The two of them spent a year trying to rebuilt the boat that Bucky and Steve used to sail their competitions with, not only attempting to restore the vessel to its former glory but also trying to build it into a better version, a way of commemorating their deceased loved ones.

Occasionally they would crash into a wave of emotions when Bucky spoke about Steve and the countless gold medals they collected when they were on their winning streak. He often wonders how Steve’s doing, hoping that his little brother knows deep down that he’ll always live on in Bucky’s heart. Steve’s part of Bucky’s soul just as much as Bucky’s a part of Steve’s soul. “Till the end of the line,” escapes Bucky’s lips each and every night before he falls asleep with the love of his life right there in his arms.

Little did Bucky know that when the canon shot announced sundown, Steve wasn’t waiting for Bucky to arrive so they could resume playing catch just like they had done so many times before. On the contrary, Steve had been standing at the shoreline, watching with a big, dorky smile how Bucky, Clint and Tony resolved their differences and set out to sail towards Y/N.

Steve watched and prayed for his big brother, waving one last time before rushing into the woods towards their old meeting spot, a familiar weight lifting off his chest and disappearing into thin air as Steve’s body roams these trees and vines one last time before vanishing into a ray of light, accompanying the stars above.

Even now he is still keeping an eye out for Bucky, grinning like a complete fool as he sees Bucky take Y/N’s hand in his, softly kissing her knuckles before tucking her hand in his, intertwining their fingers as he steers their sailboat away from the harbour of their hometown and towards a new adventure.

Both boys are finally at peace.

Tagging: the ever-wonderful

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@amrita31199

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