When he'd opened his eyes that day, bound to the low, wooden T that the marines had whipped up for him and his repentance, he hadn't expected to be met with a cheerily bright face and a cheerful proposal to "Join ma crew!"
Having originally come from an island that changed places every now and again and which had thus been lost to him for a while now and having been a pirate hunter for ages, he hadn't batted an eye at the strange mélange of tongues coming from the young captain's mouth, although he'd taken note of it.
For every now and again, Luffy would forget himself and something strange would happen. The bandit's slang that obfuscated his words he could understand, his captain had probably been around. But the incredibly sophisticated words that he threw into his speech sometimes was something Zoro hadn't been prepared for.
(those got Luffy quite a few strange looks at any time he deigned to make use of them)
He'd gotten hints of what the cheerful idiot's crew would consist of in the future when he'd asked who was already on it and been answered that it was just the two of them, for now. No one sane would follow such a clearly insane self-proclaimed captain into piracy. (Not that he'd considered himself sane by that point)
The orange-haired witch that changed tongues as much as she changed allegiance had just been the beginning. (And hadn't that been a revelation that she could charm nobly born folk and miscreants alike into believing whatever lies she spun about her origins)
The liar whose accent stayed the same at any given moment had been refreshing, after that. He could overlook the lies, even if they were awfully obvious – at least to him – so long as the long-nose kept to his dialect.
Afterwards came the cook, and this one just rubbed Zoro the wrong way in all the ways he hadn't even considered possible. He was a walking, talking entity of impossibilities that shouldn't exist.
Starting off the developing tick in his eye was the accent. It was so weird to hear anything the like anywhere near the East Blue that he couldn't even place it when presented with it for the first time.
(It took a lot longer to remember that he hadn't come across that particular accent in the East Blue except for in that one person and embarrassingly long not to link it to Grand Line islands at all)
Then there was the fact that the blond menace's lovey dovey behavior got on his nerves and did not help during fights.
His antagonizing nature had just been the straw that broke the camel's back. Anyone's patience would have snapped, he was sure.
The shitty cook made decent food and Luffy liked him, but those were the only reasons he was allowed to stay, in his opinion.
Logue Town was an amalgamation of tongues that he'd probably been the only one to have expected (although the witch adapted fast, he'd give her that). The cook and the liar didn't adapt so much as they warily went with it and their captain barreled through in his usual manner, not minding anyone else or their language troubles in his desire to see the last Pirate King's execution stand (he'd gotten used to Luffy and his habits much, much faster than he'd expected).
Next they crossed Reverse Mountain and Luffy proved that language mattered zilch when communicating, even if he ones doing it were of different species.
Bumbling about on the Grand Line got them a hidden princess and her lackey, and after that a princess that was hiding on their ship and her pet.
There was that difference between the former who exuded that air of unease among all the false posturing and blustering about and her language that was obviously adopted from her partner (barring anyone else's influence) and the latter who behaved with an honesty that felt right at home with the Strawhats and a frank speech pattern that belied her highborn nobility status.
(And wasn't it weird that out of all of them it was Luffy who sometimes had the least problems understanding her when she unconsciously fell back into her more sophisticated speech?)
(His captain never ceased to amaze him)
(He'd stand by him forever)
The Grand Line offered a variety of dishes the shitty cook wasn't familiar with, apparently, and it consisted of a bunch of people from different Blues making do with what they had. That was the impression the swordfighter got, though he wasn't bothered much. As long as "beer" and "alcohol" were words that the local bartender understood, the world was good. The only trouble he'd gotten into so far concerned the finger sign for how many bottles he wanted. Why that of all things differed from place to place when the language stayed mostly the same was a mystery to him.
(Not that he hadn't proceeded to drink the five bottles he'd been brought instead of the two he'd ordered.)
The reindeer was a surprise, for all that it was capable of expressing itself in an understandable manner. Luffy's introduction of their new crew member left much to be desired, although they would pick up the pieces as they went along with his plans.
(It was practically a prerequisite for a Strawhat nakama, they thought – be prepared to go along with the captain's whims, even if you don't understand him at times)
(it was impressive how their captain's speech had nothing to do with not getting just how his mind worked)
(even more impressive was how they understood him when it mattered, regardless of it all)
The fiery brother who appeared out of the blue one day explained some of Luffy's weirdness, albeit by far not everything. For one, it was somewhat obvious how exactly his captain had survived his childhood if he'd always been charging into situations with reckless abandon.
What his appearance didn't clear up was how both had adopted that habit of theirs to mingle their East Blue accent with words that stemmed from a far higher upbringing than Zoro suspected they had, what with the prevalence of bandit slang that both threw into the conversation as often as Luffy got enthusiastic about a new thing.
The strangeness didn't end there, however, as the brother had far better manners than expected from a pirate of the Grand Line, never mind from someone who had, it seemed, grown up alongside Luffy.
Their shared looks aside, the lessons on manners both of them had seemingly gotten when they had been younger had stuck with only one. (Had they gotten lessons on speech at the same time, too, he wondered?)
Not for the first time Zoro was curious about his captain's origins.
A fun combination though they were, it was kind of disconcerting that both brothers were now able to understand the princess' accidental switches to "the stuck-ups' " speech, as the witch had dubbed it, and easily translate for the other crewmates. When he left, he left like a whirlwind had travelled alongside their captain and left him energized and more than ready to go on.
It was in Alabasta that the Strawhats got their first true reality check concerning the language in use on Grand Line islands. Nanohaha was tame in comparison to the towns and villages that lay farther into the country. There, Vivi was the only one who could get through to barter for necessities.
(Luffy didn't let that faze him, he had hands and feet and his face to perfectly communicate all his needs anywhere at any time, after all, and wasn't shy to use them)
(Fights didn't need language exchanges, either, though it was pretty disappointing to see the disparaging comments and banter fly right over the enemies' heads)
(Tears were easily understood, as well, and Luffy didn't need to say a word to have them have a go at the ones who dared make a nakama of theirs cry)
If anything, the meal at the end was well worth it to endure the king and his entourage's blabbering. Moreover, food was a pretty uniting thing anywhere in the world, Zoro found. (No one could pay him enough to admit that out loud in front of a blond menace, though)
By the time they set sail, their latest acquisition had already boarded their ship, with her sharp edges and her silky tongue.
Carving a spot for her wasn't easy, especially when she used their weak spots against them, winning them over one after the other.
(Although for all that she probably thought it was her who won them over, it wasn't so)
(After all, they went along with it mostly because they had long since gotten used to keeping up with Luffy wherever he went)
(All the smooth talking in the world wouldn't have made her one of them if their captain hadn't approved of her and made her one of theirs from the get-go)
The incident at Enies Lobby only cemented her position, to be honest. Hearing her shout those words in whatever language that was and then translate them – obviously for their captain's benefit – into a shout of "I want to live!" in the most resoundingly heartfelt utterance he'd heard from her so far was the cherry on top, really.
The Robin from thereafter, with her words finally fitting with what she was and wanted to say, utterly differed from the one before and he approved wholeheartedly.
The robot man with his mechanic sounding voice and the echoes that came with it rounded their party up nicely, he found.
When Luffy found them a musician, he had to concede that his captain had been talking about getting them one from the start, hadn't he? That it was a skeleton who could speak and sing and somehow play instruments despite possessing no flesh on his fingers, was nothing extraordinary in light of other members of their crew. To be fair, it was a dead musician he'd found, but ah well. It was Luffy. What did anyone expect?
The way he spoke was pretty old-fashioned but he'd been dead for a while, hadn't he? No wonder he used outdated words everyone else stumbled over at times. Parsing the meaning of those was fun, all considered. So what if his words sometimes echoed weirdly as if they bounced along the bones at times. There were worse problems to handle for a crew.
The cacophony of voices and noises on the Thousand Sunny had just reached a comfortable, habitual level when they were cut out of each other's lives all of a sudden in a move that none of them had been prepared for.