Just been thinking about how much I love Robin's Straw Hat initiation. Some of the Straw Hats took an entire arc to join, meanwhile Robin's just like "Hey my boss tried to kill me and I sorta got nowhere else to go. Can I crash with you guys?" and Luffy just goes "Oh for sure, bro"

don't forget that Sanji--the person who infamously cannot hurt or attack women--was pointing a gun at her head during much of this conversation. this does not detract in any way from how casual she and Luffy were about it

@themuffinsoup I actually misremembered--Sanji draws a gun on Robin when she shows up at the end of the Whiskey Peak arc.

(also-- this implies that Sanji just carries a gun around at all times but almost never uses it??)

shout out to nico robin, transfem and known meddling shit-stirrer, for watching sanji run around in nami’s body talking about how right it felt to have breasts and somehow still managing to uphold the Prime Directive. unsung heroine of punk hazard tbh

and a double shoutout to @farsight-the-char for tagging this #sanji zeffsdottir, which embedded itself into my brain and blew my third eye wide open

Just been thinking about how much I love Robin's Straw Hat initiation. Some of the Straw Hats took an entire arc to join, meanwhile Robin's just like "Hey my boss tried to kill me and I sorta got nowhere else to go. Can I crash with you guys?" and Luffy just goes "Oh for sure, bro"

don't forget that Sanji--the person who infamously cannot hurt or attack women--was pointing a gun at her head during much of this conversation. this does not detract in any way from how casual she and Luffy were about it

well I can’t write a shopping list in Louisiana French yet, but I do have some headcanon worldbuilding around languages spoken in the One Piece setting:

(feel free to use these concepts in your works!)

first up is Seatongue

Celestial

Façon

auf Norden

Kalaam

Wanogo

Norður

Piscine

(quick angst addition: the tradition of naming high-end weapons in Wanogo is why Judge named his offspring in that language despite Germa’s native language being auf Norden)

oh my gosh I just read a fic (nsfw) that used “Wanogo” as Zoro’s native language!! I don’t know if it was inspired by this or an independent coinage but!!

In an OPLA verse version of the “Zoro and Sanji met and started dating before the Straw Hats formed” premise, the reveal of their relationship would go like—

they behave totally as they do in canon up to when Sanji brings the Straw Hats their drink orders.

then Sanji intentionally starts shit with Zoro (“You know, we do also serve food here.”). they start bickering (there are reaction shots from a wary Nami, a raptly interested Luffy, and an increasingly alarmed Usopp) until Zoro legitimately draws Wado and takes a swing at Sanji.

Usopp and Luffy both start out of their seats but Sanji blocks Zoro’s swing easily. there’s a beat of total silence—even some of the nearby tables are watching, stunned—and then both Zoro and Sanji crack up. Zoro sheathes Wado and just fuckign. does the scoop-up-and-twirl-around-into-a-big-ol’-smooch maneuver on a grinning Sanji right there in the middle of the dinner service (reaction shot of the other Straw Hats, looking various degrees of flabbergasted).

(here’s the dialogue I wrote for it by the way:)

Sanji: [writing on his order pad] You know, we do also serve food here.

Zoro: [looking off into the intermediate distance in that Way he does] No thanks—heard the best cook in the place got kicked off the line again. [quick cut to Sanji, still looking at his order pad, now smiling a little] Still haven’t figured out how to work from a menu?

Sanji: I guess not. [finishes writing; looks at Zoro] Still haven’t figured out how to sit in a booth?

Nami: [half-stifled laugh snort]

Zoro: [eyes flick over to Sanji]

Sanji: I mean, those are removable, right? They’re not just decorative?

Usopp: [quietly, to Luffy] Ooooh…

Zoro: They’re real. [puts his right hand on Wado’s scabbard and releases the guard lock] Want a demonstration?

Sanji: [pseudo-apologetically] Ooh, sorry, we mop the floor after closing.

Zoro: [lunges from his seat, drawing Wado and swinging her at Sanji’s neck]

well I can’t write a shopping list in Louisiana French yet, but I do have some headcanon worldbuilding around languages spoken in the One Piece setting:

(feel free to use these concepts in your works!)

first up is Seatongue

Celestial

Façon

auf Norden

Kalaam

Wanogo

Norður

Piscine

(quick angst addition: the tradition of naming high-end weapons in Wanogo is why Judge named his offspring in that language despite Germa’s native language being auf Norden)

also since opla is really leaning into characterization based on the anime and fanon and things like that…. and specifically since they’re leaning into Zoro and Nami’s sibling-like relationship…. might I humbly request…. that they also lean into Zoro as a Nami/Vivi shipper

also I feel like everyone should think that Sanji’s going to be jealous of Nami and Vivi but he actually thinks it’s the Legitimate Most Romantic Thing Ever

why are there no fics where Sanji and Zoro join forces to try to hook Nami and Vivi up and fall in love in the process?? there should be

so given that Zoro can basically channel others’ will now, and given Sanji’s newfound perception haki-based ability to counter blows that he couldn’t otherwise perceive based on sensing intent to harm his loved ones, and given the Wano Death Pact, I am now imagining a thing where Zoro channels Sanji’s will in order to defeat him/Stealth Black

after all, the only way to fight an invisible person is to sense their intent….

Zoro just parrying Stealth Black’s hits perfectly, hit after hit, despite Stealth Black’s complete invisibility, because Zoro is channeling the will of Sanji—the real Sanji—the one who can negate an Admiral’s laser because it threatens his loved ones… and Zoro is one of Sanji’s loved ones.

and!! before that though— like—

Stealth Black has Zoro like on the ropes, he’s bleeding from everywhere because Stealth Black is drawing it out—making a point? using him to bait the rest of the crew? toying with him?

(trying to get him to keep his promise?)

the point is that Zoro’s at the point where he’s staggering from blood loss/broken bones/cut tendons/etc. he’s tried tearing up the room with his Phoenix attacks and Stealth Black just evades or tanks them. he’s tried Asura and that just gives Stealth Black more weak points to hit. he’s tried hearing the world’s voice but that takes too much sustained concentration….

but that gives him an idea.

hey, shitty cook, he thinks. give me a hand for ten seconds.

he smiles. smoke begins to drift upwards from the bottoms of his unsteady feet. the blood pooling on the floor begins to sizzle. when he speaks, it’s with inflections not his own.

“that should be enough time,” he says.

so given that Zoro can basically channel others’ will now, and given Sanji’s newfound perception haki-based ability to counter blows that he couldn’t otherwise perceive based on sensing intent to harm his loved ones, and given the Wano Death Pact, I am now imagining a thing where Zoro channels Sanji’s will in order to defeat him/Stealth Black

after all, the only way to fight an invisible person is to sense their intent….

Zoro just parrying Stealth Black’s hits perfectly, hit after hit, despite Stealth Black’s complete invisibility, because Zoro is channeling the will of Sanji—the real Sanji—the one who can negate an Admiral’s laser because it threatens his loved ones… and Zoro is one of Sanji’s loved ones.

one piece figure skating au wherein Sanji and Zoro have one of Those Sports Rivalries. you know, the kind where their names are pretty much never mentioned without each other and people who follow the sport at their level have Opinions on which one is better (Zoro’s fans maintain that Zoro has a better technical skillset and that Sanji basically just gets by on charisma. Sanji’s fans think Zoro’s routines are bland and unchallenging and make memes about his one facial expression). They themselves respect each other but definitely are trying to outdo each other and also have the OPLA “trying to banter but it just sounds like insults” disease.

then Sanji’s career is suddenly disrupted by being outed as transfem (not saying by Judge but definitely by Judge). there’s this huge controversy over can she skate, and if so with whom and in what context, which keeps her off the ice for months and looks to end her career completely. this is when Zoro offers to do a pairs routine with her in an upcoming exhibition.

now everybody who follows Zoro knows that he 1) hates exhibitions because there’s no winner and 2) hates overtly themed routines because he thinks they’re a crutch to distract from a deficiency of pure skill.

which is why it’s surprising when their pairs routine, a lindy hop-style piece set to a medley of Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me Kate and I Wish I Were in Love Again, which is choreographed half as a knock down drag out fight and intended as an inside joke about their rivalry, turns out to be 1) absolutely oozing with sexual tension and 2) probably the best performance, athletically and artistically, of both of their careers.

seriously, to be able to combine swing dancing and stage fighting, on ice skates, in your first routine together, is such an insane achievement on a technical level that it almost overshadows both the controversy over Sanji’s gender and the colossal waves of UST emanating from every recording of that performance.

which was kind of the point.

well, the first part was at any rate. Zoro wanted to show his respect for Sanji as an athlete and his rival and to deliver such an incredible performance with her that it would get people to talk about that rather than about her gender. he was not anticipating the other bit.

(at least now most of the memes about him have changed to being about how his competition-obsessed stone-faced ass is doomed to go down in history for an exhibition routine about his rivalry boner, which is…better?)

Zoro, in the group chat with his coach/mentor and his choreographer/designer at 2 am: so I was thinking we could end on an around the world aerial but as she lands she kicks up with her near foot so the blade almost cuts my throat

Perona: i think this woman makes you have worms in your brain