#I fucking love Brook

[synodicsoma]

Mew Mew Brook ✨

[zigzap]

egghead hours

[dodothefool]

ITS MY BOYS SUUUPER BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and the other two i guess but this isnt about them)

i couldnt figure out how to fit his sunglasses so heres my best attempt lol

[brooksdavis]

I can't possibly describe how much I love you, so I'll tell you why I love you. You see the world in a way that no one else does, and you appreciate everything…including me. There's no one in the world like you. And if you say yes in a few minutes, I'll get to spend the rest of my life trying to see the world through your eyes, appreciating everything. Including you, the most unique, wonderful, and terribly handsome man I've ever met.

ONE TREE HILL ⸺ 8.13 | "The Other Half of Me" (2011)

[guiltyonsundays]

In defence of Will Ladislaw

George Eliot's characterisation of Will Ladislaw is one of the few aspects of Middlemarch that is not universally praised, with no less a person than Henry James commenting in 1873 that he lacked “sharpness of outline and depth of color”, making him the novel’s “only eminent failure.” And while Will's character is certainly not as clearly defined as some of the other characters in the novel, I believe that this was absolutely intentional on Eliot's part. Middlemarch is full to the brim of characters who believe they know exactly what they want—not least among them, our two protagonists, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, whose ardent ambitions and inflexible attitudes lead them into catastrophic errors of judgement and unhappy marriages.

By contrast, Will's lack of strongly defined goals and his changeability are almost his defining character traits. He's aimless and pliable, prone to rapid mood swings and drastic career changes, with even his physical features seeming to "chang[e] their form; his jaw looked sometimes large and sometimes small; and the little ripple in his nose was a preparation for metamorphosis. When he turned his head quickly his hair seemed to shake out light."

Will’s inscrutability is closely tied to his ambiguous status within the rigid class structure and xenophobic society of Victorian England, with his Polish ancestry and “rebellious blood on both sides” making him a target for suspicion. He is repeatedly aligned (and aligns himself) with oppressed, marginalised, and outcast populations—Jewish people, artists, and the poor.

He serves as a narrative foil for characters like Lydgate and Edward Casaubon, who prioritise specialist expertise above all and are consequently incapable of broad knowledge synthesis. He critiques Casaubon's life's work as being "thrown away, as so much English scholarship is, for want of knowing what is being done by the rest of the world." By contrast, Will serves as Eliot's defence of the value of a liberal education. One of the first things that we learn about him is that he declines to choose a vocation, and instead seeks to travel widely, experiencing diverse cultures and ways of life. He has broad tastes and interests, trying his hand at poetry and painting before eventually pursuing a career in politics.

He also functions as a narrative foil for Dorothea. Will is initially apathetic to politics, whereas Dorothea initially professes herself to be disinterested in art and beauty. This is perfectly encapsulated in their exchange in Rome, when Dorothea declares, "I should like to make life beautiful—I mean everybody's life. And then all this immense expense of art, that seems somehow to lie outside life and make it no better for the world, pains one", to which Will replies, "You might say the same of landscape, of poetry, of all refinement [...] The best piety is to enjoy—when you can [...] I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery, and want to make your life a martyrdom.”

By the end of the novel, Dorothea unlearns some of her puritanical suspicion of sensual pleasure, whereas Will becomes more serious, compassionate, and politically engaged, dedicating his life to the accomplishment of humane political reforms. They are both flawed individuals, who ultimately become more well rounded through their relationship with each other. Admittedly, Dorothea's influence on Will is more significant than his on her—and once again, I believe that this was intentional on Eliot's part.

In my opinion, the negative response to Will Ladislaw at the time of Middlemarch's publication (and in the centuries since) was and is profoundly informed by gendered expectations of masculine dominance in romantic relationships. Will's marriage to Dorothea has often been described as disappointing, with many readers and critics viewing the ambitious Lydgate as the embodiment of the ideal husband that Dorothea outlines at the beginning of the novel—a talented man engaged in important work for the betterment of humanity, to whom she can devote herself.

However, one of the central themes of the novel is that people are often mistaken in their beliefs about what they want, and Dorothea's marriage to Edward Casaubon certainly demonstrates that she would not in fact be happy living her life in submission to a man who does not respect her opinions. I firmly believe that Lydgate's misogynistic attitudes and expectations would have made it impossible for him to be happy in a marriage of equals with a woman like Dorothea. He is explicitly drawn to Rosamond Vincy because she has "just the kind of intelligence one would desire in a woman—polished, refined, docile."

By contrast, George Eliot made a deliberate choice to pair Dorothea with a man who is not ashamed to be influenced by her, and indeed looks up to her as his moral superior. Through Dorothea's influence, Will discovers his life's work. In turn, by marrying Will, Dorothea is able to pursue her true passion. As a result of their influence on each other, these come to mean the same thing—reform. Thus, George Eliot grants Dorothea Brooke a subversively feminist, politically progressive, and profoundly cathartic ending: a life of companionate marriage, sensual pleasure, and meaningful work, in which Dorothea can devote herself (within the limited means available to her as a woman in the 19th century) to the achievement of just and compassionate reforms that "make life beautiful" for everybody—herself included.

[sanjisboyfie]

halloween with the strawhats !

little headcanons i have for halloween !! ! ! ( a a couple days after )

male reader, platonic pairings, straw hats are just a cute lil friendgrouip + don't ask me why zoro and luffys are so short, i don't know why either. i think they just got longer the more down the list you go sooorrryyyyy

also more so modern???au

— luffy definitely wants to do a group costume, something silly and fun. he tries his hardest in convincing everyone to get on board with the idea, but it seems like usopp and chopper are the only ones hearing him out </3 luffy would try hitting you with the puppy dog eyes, but you were already committed to your costume for a while so you had to reject the poor boy.

"b-but, [name]!!!" it was obvious the man was putting on his best whiny voice, elongating every syllable in your name just to sway you. he was also rocking the both of you back and forth in a hug to woo you over in joining his group costume. "it won't be the same without you dressed up with us!"

"luffy, i already decided my costume much earlier in the year, i'm sorry," you said, petting down his raven hair with an apologetic look on your face. but your words only sullened his mood further and made the pout on his face turn into an outright frown.

"but, [name]!!!" luffy began shaking you even more roughly, turning you into a bobble head figure basically. you couldn't do anything to break out of his strong grip and just had to take his torment with a smile.

"i'm sorry luffy," you said softly, runnng a hand up and down his arm to comfort him.

"i don't forgive you!" luffy childishly whined, releasing you from his hold and walking off to a different aisle in the halloween costume store. "whatever, you're the one missing out!"

"i believe you, luffy," you called out, laughing when you heard him grumble under his breath and stomp in annoyance.

— zoro definitely has a lazy ass costume, mainly because he thinks the holiday is a silly thing for children (usopp, luffy, and chopper all lectured him on how it wasn't like that at all). i'm thinking he jsut wrapped himself in toilet paper and said he was a mummy, also using his costume as an excuse to just speaks in grunts and groans to everyone else.

"zoro, could you pour me some more punch!" you had politely asked him as he was closest to the juice bowl. he simply shook his head with his arms crossed over his wrapped chest, giving you a firm, "arrhhggh,"

"zoro, what?"

"uurghghruuhg"

"okay, fuck you too,"

— nami is invested in making some money off of the holiday!! she's committed to it. she has a really pretty costume planned out and forces everyone to participate in a costume contest with a submission fee of 50 bucks, even though it was just your friend group participating. either way, she decides that the winner of the contest gets all the profit. so she wins - obviously in a non-rigged way - and cheers in victory. but even with all of her focus being on getting some cash out of the holiday, she does compliment your costume and slide you a couple bills.

"hm, i was scared you were gonna beat me, y'know?" she mused, looking at you with a mischeviously look on her face, "because i really like your costume, [name]! you look great!"

you grinned at the compliment, "thanks, you do too! and that's why you won, you have the best costume. plus, sanji would have never let me won that prize since he knows how badly you wanted the reward,"

she playfully rolled her eyes at the mention of the blonde, "yeah, well, sanji doesn't have to know about this then," she said, pulling some bills out from her pocket and putting it into your own. "next year don't expect this treatment though! i was feeling generous just now,"

you smirked, taking the cash from her happily and watching as she joined robin's side.

— usopp is the life of the celebration. he is the best story teller of horror stories, even if he himself gets scared of his own made up tales. he brings everyone into the center, under a huge blanket fort and tells the scariest story known to man. but when he reaches the climax, luffy suddenly pops his head into the enclosed space, loudly asking if anyone else wanted food, and completely threw usopp off of his game. the poor man let out a loud girlish scream and jumped into your lap to hide from luffy's grinning face.

"and then when the killer," usopp took a deep breath, looking at everyone's face individually, "finally came knocking on poor little billy's door, he was greeted by the sight of-"

"oh!! i'm getting more food from the kitchen, do you guys want anything?!" luffy had got up for a bathroom break earlier and completely ruined usopp's horror story. his make-up drenched face pushed the blankets aside and completely surprised everyone in the fort. especially usopp.

usopp jumped off of his sitting position and into your lap, hiding his face in your neck for some comfort. he was practically crying and whimpering from fear, eyes screwed shut as he refused to look at the demon (luffy) that was there to terrorize him and his friends (ask if they wanted more food).

"begone, demon!! begone!!" usopp pathetically cried out, also not even looking up at the supposed demon to condemn them.

"usopp, it's just luffy-"

"demon! demonic activity! demon!!!"

— chopper really enjoys the nature of halloween despite being scared very easily. while the place is in an uproar of just ultimate chaos, he's very kindly giving out candy to whoever comes by. unfortunately, not everyone that comes around is dressed in peaceful, cute costumes.

just as you were pouring another drink for zoro. there was a loud, girlish scream that was coming from the front door. the green haired man took the drink for himself, grunting at you. you could only guess what he meant by that.

but you didn't dwell on it further, moving to see what was at the front door. and lo and behold, there was chopper stiffly standing in front of someone in a freddy krueger costume.

"ah, sorry, he scares easily," you explained quickly, resting a hand on chopper shoulder and asking if he was alright. seeing that his shaking eyes were still trained on the figure, you decided to take the candy bowl from his hands and protectively stand in front of him.

even though this guy definitely didn't pose any harm to chopper, it would make the scared guy feel better (probably) to have a physical barrier between the two.

"here, have a good halloween," you said with a smile, making the freddy krueger nod in appreciation and then walk off of the porch. when they were gone, you closed and locked the door behind them and turned to chopper with a grin.

"c'mon man, they were just in costume," you teased, relieved to see chopper was out of his fearful state and instead blushing in embarassment.

"freddy was a scary guy!!" he argued, but it only made you pinch his cheeks in a harmless way.

"right, right, well you were very brave just now chopper,"

"of course i was!!!"

— sanji is dressed up as a prince and goes around proclaiming his loyalty to robin and nami the whole night. he becomes more playful, though, so he doesn't really give you guys (literally, the guys) a hard time. if anything, he joins in the shenagians and lets loose a little bit. one of the rare times you get to see sanji being a mischevious little shit.

"bleh! who put salt in the cupcakes instead of sugar?!"

cue sanji giggling behind his hand and shooting you a knowing look. you laugh with him, fist bumping him under the table while he watched luffy run around and wash his mouth under the kitchen sink.

"why is the frosting sour cream?! sanji, i'm gonna beat your ass up!!"

zoro chases after sanji, those being the first coherent words he says the entire night, mind you. and now they're both running in circles around you. sanji is laughing his ass off while zoro is spitting out globs of sour cream at him.

"sanji!!! why did you pout bittermelon in the stew this tastes like ass!"

"oh! i'm sorry, [name], that was supposed to be for franky," sanji apologized, going through the cabinets and finding some stew he put in the tupperware. it was still hot, you could tell from the bottom of the container.

"why are you so mean to them today?"

"i can just get away with it by sying it's a ghost," sanji shrugged, half-assedly answering your question. "besides, don't you think it's funny?"

"it is, but sooo heartless," you laughed, making the blonde nod his head in acknowledgement.

just as he was about to say something else, there was another shriek coming from the living area, "sanji!!! this isn't strawberry glaze, this is hot sauce!!!"

"why are you yelling for me, it was the ghost!!" sanji shouted back, making the both of you collapse on each other in laughter.

— robin enjoys how everything is so lively during halloween. she loves the spookiness, the decorations, the horror movies!!!, she just loves everything about the holiday. it's a genuinely fun time of the year for her so she just loves to take it easy with you guys.

robin was slumped against the sofa, chuckling at the way chopper and usopp shrieked at the character on the screen killing another person. it was a classic slasher film she suggested and no one had a problem with it, except for usopp and chopper being scared straight through their teeth.

meanwhile, you and robin were enjoying the movie with grins on your faces. you'd sometimes feed her popcorn, her doing the same for you, and then you'd both laugh quietly whenever usopp and chopper started getting really spooked.

after the movie, you and robin reconvened in the kitchen to get more refreshments. you were talking about the movie, chatting in good nature.

"i don't know, i still think stu macher is the best ghostface," you said with a smile, "billy is the one people always talk about, but stu is my favorite,"

"well, maybe the best ghostface, but i don't know about best slasher," she said in amusement, "i like jason,"

you grimaced, "really? his mask is so creepy,"

"that's why, his character is cool," robin shrugged, taking a cherry from the platter of eating it with a hum, "also, the movie was good, i liked it,"

you grinned, ruffling her hair as she shot you a mischevious grin. her affinity towards slasher, or any horror, movie was known amongst the friendgroup. she enjoyed the rush scary movies gave watchers.

"remind me to never cross you, who knows what you might do," you joked, making her scoff and lightly jab her finger into your side. she allowed you to rest your arm around her shoulder, the both of you walking back to the living room with a big bowl of popcorn and tray of drinks.

— franky is a big decorations guy. he makes everything so festive!! plus he goes all out. don't ask him why he decided to put a fake skeleton in the shower, he'll just respond that it was his creative vision and it was a good one too. you appreciate his dedication to the holiday, although you do wish you could just walk around the house without fearing for your life at hyper realistic decorations all around.

when you first arrived to the party, you told franky you were going to drop something off in the bedroom of brook. it was some prop he was asking for his performance coming up.

you were supposed to just drop it off in his bedroom. but why was it that after you turned around from brook's bedside table, there was a figure in a scary mask standing behind the door and staring right at you. you were about to scream before the figure suddenly fell ont he ground, showing that it was just a paper cut out.

"franky!! what the fuck!!" you shouted in frustration, stomping out of the room and going to give the man a piece of your mind.

but as you were walking out of the room, and into the hallway, a figure jumped out of one of the many open doors and scared the shit out of you. this time your fist shot out and nailed the masked figure in the face, making them fold over and hold their nose.

"c'mon [name]!! what the hell!!"

"no, franky, what the hell at yourself!!" you screeched, seeing the familiar face after he took off his mask. you fretted over his face, apologizing over and over again at him. "i'm so sorry, but - seriously what was that thing in brook's room!?"

"it's called a halloween decoration, asshole!" franky cursed, holding onto his nose.

"yeah, and i thought that someone was there to kill me! why'd you put shit in his room anyway?"

"to scare you, obviously!" franky said, allowing you to examine his face and wincing when you saw the damage that was done. "sorry for scaring you,"

you softened at his apology, lightly tugging on a strand of his hair and murmuring an "i'm sorry, too." he grinned at your apology, smiling ear to ear as he assured you he'd be fine.

"they were scary, i'll tell you that," you said, standing the both of you up and guiding him to the sink. but he shook his head, nursing his nose with his hand.

"you know how many time i've broken my nose, this is just a scratch. didn't even make my nose bleed," franky assured you, laughing as you realized that what he was saying was true. how many times franky has broken his nose when he'd been working was uncountable.

"yeah, let's just forget it happened then," you said, making franky hum in approval.

"oh! but don't tell zoro about that thing up there, i plan on scaring him too,"

you laughed, nodding your head and deciding that it would be funny to hear zoro scream out in fear.

— brook is another person that like robin, enjoys anything horror related. he hides around corners or in closests and waits to make someone his victim. and if it isn't anyone in your friend group, he will go around terrorizing the trick or treaters.

"boo!!!"

"ahhh!!!"

there was a scream that followed brook's and then a parent could be heard yelling at him. the rest of the strawhats all ran to the window to see what was happening and everyone winced when they saw a parent was easily chewing out brook for hiding in the bushes and scaring their poor child.

you sighed, running a hand through your hair and walking over to the front door to collect brook since everyone else was too busy laughing their asses off at his predicament.

"ma'am, i'm sorry for his behavior," you started, walking up to brook and taking ahold of him by his elbow, "i'll just bring him inside,"

"no! i'm not done yelling at him yet!"

"have a lovely night, ma'am," you said, turning away from her and taking brook inside to scold him yourself. you looked over your shoulder and saw the woman was disgruntled, but instead focused on comforting her scared to death child.

"what is up with you?! that was a kid who wasn't even 10 years old!"

"but-but!!" brook's laughter echoed in the home, making everyone else join in, "his face was so funny!!!"

you bit your lip, trying to keep a level head and be responsible instead of just joining in on the laughter. but when brook was beginning to mimic the kid's expression, you broke out laughing along with eveyone else.

"and his mom was so mad! and began scolding me like i was her own kid too!!"

"just quit scaring the shit out of kids!" you shouted, slapping him on the backside of his head - but your words didn't really get your point across because you were laughing as much as he was.

— jinbe doesn't really understand the hype of halloween, but he can see how enjoyable it is for everyone else. he doesn't rain down on anyone's parade, bearing through the scares that brook and franky get up to, while also being a reliable figure for usopp and chopper during the horror movie. let's just say by the end of the night, you and jinbe are all tired out as you were being the "baby sitters" of everyone for the whole day.

on the night of halloween, it was basically a big party and sleepover for everyone in the friend group. you and jinbe were working overtime basically to make sure everyone was alright. luffy could possibly be eating suspicious candy, but thank god jinbe knocked it out of his hand before then. you were on duty to be comforting usopp and chopper whenever a shadow passed over the window - even though it was just a tree branch swaying in the wind.

finally, the night was over (it was the early hours in the morning by the time everyone was tired) and you and jinbe were tiredly spread acorss the couch. the group had set up a fort on the floor with the couches surrounding them. they were all sleeping on the mats and blankets they set out for themselves, cuddling to their hearts' content.

jinbe sighed in content of finally being able to rest, putting on a calming nature show on the tv instead of the horror movies that we were all binging.

you laughed at his obvious exasperation and he just waved his hand to you dismissively, showing that he didn't care about showing just how tired he was.

"i can't believe sanji made the glaze tabasco sauce," jinbe said under his breath, making another rouse of laughter come from your mouth.

"did you hear zoro finally say anything besides belrrhh and uurgghh," you said, exaggerating the sounds zoro was making. jinbe covered his mouth to stop his laughter from waking everyone else up. "i mean, seriously if he wanted to just not talk to us, he could've just stayed home,"

jinbe smacked the couch cushion as a means of hiding his laughter, turning to you with tears in his eyes, "you know he enjoys arguing with you and sanji more than he'd admit, there's no way he would have missed out on this,"

you both broke out into loud laughter, making zoro turn over and throw a pillow at you in his sleep ridden state. he sleepily told you to shut up, making jinbe point a finger at his sleepy state.

"see! like i said, in his sleep he can't help it!!!!"

the strawhats are just the cutest ugh. happy halloween everyone 😻☝️school is my biggest opp rn so i ltr have noooo chances to write or upload but hipefully this weekend i can ‼️‼️‼️

tags - platonic

[incorrect-primarchs-quotes]

Basically:

[munyequitos]

whats up guys its me eiichiro oda coming live at you with some new canon one piece information (click for quality)!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[softhairedhotch]

Aaron Hotchner, Season 2 Episode 10.

[svampira]

let me COOK with this one also everybody clap at least the thumbnail isnt purple

[sapphic-outlaw]

Mistakes were made

[loveydoveypiperwright]

@perenians Your awesome art of Merrill cannot leave my brain... "#the lengths she went to to try and rediscover elven history...marethari how could you blame her when you were the one who taught her?" I cannot stop thinking about that... about her....

[glucosegaurdian]

I’m back! Not dead! (Mostly) and bringing forth the chaos of my favorite Koby fic!

I’ve been sitting on these for a bit now, mostly because hyperfixation is a bitch and I fell off the one piece boat for a good week there, but they’re colored and I’m shaking with the need to post!

also, tw below cut, consensual vivisection?

Okay! I’m good now! I leave to crawl back into my hole for another week and a half before emerging again with more art! :)

@cemeteryguy hey! It’s been a while! :))

[langfield]

my hot take is that one of double exposure’s strengths was it’s characters, actually! i think people tend to forget how little the characters in lis:1 mattered tbh? they barely had relationships outside of max ( kate and warren are the biggest offenders of this, with kate’s other friends, stella and alyssa, being shown in one photo and warren’s only relationships being with brooke, a girl he never interacts with on screen, and stella, a girl he gets with at random in the vortex timeline ) and would cease to exist once they served their intended purpose to the plot, like nathan, who’s killed off screen after inherently giving max and chloe everything they needed to find the dark room. victoria, bless her heart, is so inconsistently written and suffers hard from the plot manipulating her character to fit whatever role the other characters aren’t filling … etc etc. don’t get me wrong! they’re still good characters! in fact, i love them thoroughly. but you can tell pretty quickly that lis:1 is a plot over characters sort of game -- and that people’s praise for the well written cast of lis:1 is mostly founded in nostalgia and hcs they’ve been personally making for the past nine years. a lot of the dynamics are shallow, nonexistent, or entirely made up from the first game … meanwhile double exposure, with it’s more condensed cast and social media element, was able to do a lot more despite the shakier plot writing.

safi and moses? best friends with actual lore and screentime. safi and vinh? were once in the same friend group, have slept together, he’s in love with her but she doesn’t care for him at all and, if forced to have an opinion, dislikes him greatly. safi and gwen? mentor and mentee, you see how much safi trusts gwen with how she comes out of her shell around her during her experimental writing years, and gwen takes safi hating her to heart because she cared for her too, and ( as heard in a voicemail from vinh ) likely blames herself for safi’s death in the dead world timeline. lucas and safi? former student and teacher, now coworkers, heavily implied safi used to admire lucas before he fucked maya over and now loathes him so fiercely she’s willing to hurt his kid to get back at him, and he’s legitimately scared of her. and that’s just safi’s relationships! a character who the game barely shows on screen in ep2 and ep3. vinh’s relationships are vast and complex, raging from his situationship with reggie ( a dynamic that has a long history that takes multiple playthroughs to understand ) to his intense and bitter rivalry with diamond to his silly, lowstakes attraction to moses to his ‘forged in secrecy and pain’ relationship with yasmin to … so on so forth. moses and diamond have an entire bittersweet dynamic where diamond has found herself loving someone for the first time but not only is moses taken, he also sisterzones her at the end of the game. diamond and reggie are close friends despite their different views and bond over their unrequited love and undergrad struggles. loretta has a crush on reggie! etc etc.

and that’s just the relationships between the characters. the characters themselves are rather distinct from each other -- but that’s a whole other post entirely. are there flaws with the character writing in double exposure? naturally! there are some that aren’t as fleshed out as they could be ( like the lis:1 crew ) and some relationships go nowhere or are inconsistent at best. i could harp on lis:de’s flaws all day, really, because the plot writing after ep3 was rather atrocious tbh!! though i still think people are rather unfair about the pros of the game itself, and the stuff that was genuinely improved upon to a degree such as having the supporting characters exist and interact without max’s input.

[brooksdavis]

When I look into your eyes, Brooke, I see the rest of my life. And I see it with you.

[faraige]

Charles, who has a "six-minute abs" book in his room with his ex's name written in it.

Charles, whose fiancée cheated on him with Pablo, arguably a younger, way more conventionally attractive and fit man.

Charles, who is incredibly insecure about anyone knowing he dyes his hair because he started going gray and worried that one day he'll go bald.