I personally like to imagine that Dragon, at 36 years old, a decade or two into building his rebel organization after defecting from the military and going rogue, seriously had no intention of having a child and, when faced with the fact that he knocked someone up, was well within the realm of common sense to stand there thinking “girl I’m hoping we can squat in this abandoned warehouse long enough to do the arms deal next Tuesday without being raided by the cops or caught in a trap.”
Like I too would’ve sent that kid off to someone who had raised a child and who I figured would at least be able to feed it with a legally acquired salary.
“But he took Sabo!”
Yeah so 14 whole years later, about 12 years after Roger’s execution, with a well established operation (going on 30smth years) and base, he was rescuing civilians from a fire and saw some lil British brat fall in the street in front of him and essentially go “I hate being a world noble I hope they all rot”. Next day he sees the same lil blond bitch’s dinghy get KO’d by a celestial dragon’s bazooka. Dragon pulls the kid from the wreckage, gets him to the only doctor he can currently trust, and they find out the kid lost his memory and knows only his name and “fuck the government” and refuses to go back to the world nobles.
So fine ok they decide to teach the kid how to lie better and defend himself, except turns out he’s got a black belt in something or other and a lot of unchecked rage. At that point literally where else can you put him??
Give me dragon who did NOT want children and is staring at Ivankov in panic “Iva the ten year old who has the drive and ability to kill cops keeps quoting Marx at me and just said he wants to go hunt dinner for us I don’t want child soldiers but I’m honestly not sure how ethical it is to release him at this point.”
You wake up to discover that your partner has left the mafia and may or may not be dead. (great)
Because of this your boss calls you for a brief meeting. You leave to go drive your car to— oh your car has blown up! (wonderful…)
You grab a PM Taxi to the bosses office and once you enter you discover your boss’s creepy af ability has started MIMICKING YOUR (ex) PARTNER. (what the fuck)
… (naturally you crash-out)
You get the day off and spend the rest of your day drinking antique wine in ‘celebration’. (Totally)
In Oda's notes for Film Red he wrote down "Shanks isn't a mature guy" and after chapter 1126 with the whole poison incident I can't help but think this man has the exact same humor as Winston fron New Girl. Bro either goes way too big or way too small.
Fun fact: In the vivre card for young Shanks it says his least favorite food is blueberries so this made the comparison extra funny to me. He WOULD think adding a surprise blueberry to someone's meal as gross and funny.
"Yo ho ho," Brook hums to himself. What shall he sing today?
He has to sing something, play something, or he'll go mad. If he isn't mad already, that is, with no brain to be mad with-!
"Skull joke!"
It's either laugh or cry when it comes to his utter lack of flesh and frankly, Brook's already discovered his strange body can still do the latter.
Not something he wants today. Er, tonight? Impossible to tell in the ever clinging fog.
The shadows churn and shift about him, always looking like something different to his mind's eye. Sometimes they're strange and monstrous, things never before seen. Other times they're all too familiar in ways Brook wishes that were not true.
Like, say, that strange silhouette veering in the fog ahead. Looks quite familiar indeed, even moreso when it comes less of a shadow and more of an actual human shape.
He knows the owner of that shape, that face.
(She placed a crack in his skull, after all. One that still remains, even as all of his other scars have rotted away into nothing.)
"Oh, Princess Shuri! Come to visit me here?"
This isn't the first time the princess has paid him a visit in purgatory, though the clothes this version of her wears don't seem what he's used to. Plus the mask.
But not any stranger than seeing his fellow Rumbar Pirates clack their own bones, hmm?
The illusion tilts her head. "Who are you, to speak to me this way?"
He bows dramatically, carefully not to lose his violin in the process. "Only a humble musician, Your Highness! Don't mind me, I'm still deciding what to play!"
"A musician...play."
A demand, deep from the soul and fevered mind. Brook obliges, for what else is there? He either plays or he doesn't and he already knows he'll lose even more of himself if he does not.
He lifts up his bow and plays.
Not Binks Sake here, he thinks. No, something a bit more...somber. For the ghosts between them, for the ghost of the princess he once knew before she was lost to madness.
He plays and sings. To the very end.
"Good night and joy be with you all~~~"
A final note hangs in the air between them, and Brook lowers his violin. Rolls out his shoulders. It's been a while since he played something in its entirety like that. Mostly been just bits and pieces that he tried not to forget.
Well, different songs for different hauntings.
The two different colored eyes lock on him intently.
Watching the finale of The Amazing Digital Circus bit me with the bug to design circus avatars for all the Straw Hats. So here they are with their names and some of the thoughts I had while designing them. (Jinbe is probably my favorite because look at him.)
baratheonpilled
blakekathryn
kianamaiart
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
snowghoul
prguitarman
