#and Luffy and Zoro turn to each other and immediately nonverbally communicate

[lilnasxvevo]

I love you Monkey D. Luffy I love you protecting the power of friendship through the power of incredible violence

[mushiemellows]

Frobin hc- they both know how to hand sign and it’s their primary form of nonverbal communication

- Robin picks some up here and there when she’s a teen on the run but the use cases for it are few and far between so she’s a bit rusty. But there’s definitely times where she’ll sprout a few hands to get info out quickly and silently

- Franky learns from a few Family members. He has to reconstruct his hearing after the accident and he does a good job at it, but there’s still some days where the tech’s not working right and he’s gotta go a few days at a time without hearing.

-he also gives big Dad With Hearing Aids joke potential energy (turning them off when Luffy’s too loud, etc)

- Robin’s got a tendency to go a bit nonverbal sometimes and retreat, and that’s how Franky starts signing to her. He’s checking in from across the deck at a distance and her signs aren’t perfect in response but she gets the message across.

- she picks up a couple of books on the topic to polish up and soon they’re having full conversations that way

- they use it more in every day contexts than actually on days where either of them is feeling under the weather because it’s far more convenient

- Franky’s welding and doing like, construction stuff and his ear protection’s on goggles down but Robin’s able to ask him questions with just her hands

-(he doesn’t love when she signs with just her hands because he can’t get any info from her face/lips/rest of her body so it’s confusing sometimes. But he’s figured out what she generally means)

-(she doesn’t love his general sign style, he’s too relaxed and his hands are big enough that sometimes she can’t tell what he’s specifically trying to say. And he has a niche w7 regional accent to his signs)

- when the crew goes out dancing and partying, they’re usually the two on Round Everyone Up and Get Them Home Before They Make a Mess duty at the end of the night, so they sign to each other from across the club. The music’s too loud and- shit where’s zoro

- sometimes they sign at the dinner table and no one knows what they’re saying but Sanji has his suspicions 🤫

- they sign during battles and it’s helped immeasurably in their strategizing and planning. Franky’s overly concerned, checking in with her from a distance like every five minutes even though she’s usually handling herself well

- if Robin’s too far away she’ll sign to him in battle with Giantesco Manos but he like, never knows what she’s trying to say. And then he’s just in the General trying to sign back for clarification and neither of them are doing an effective job

-post ts she picks up a ton of actually practical signs from the Revs (intersectional gays that they are) and her signing improves very very quickly

-post ts he gets so much worse and so much better simultaneously, he’s all on his own so he gets rusty and his new hands take all the nuance out of whatever he’s trying to express, and it frustrates him

- but the little hands? He uses them to sign like a pro, they’re quick and snappy and so much easier to read (for Robin, at least. Everyone else thinks he’s lost it)

- like he’s on the deck and she’s leaning out the library window and he’s trying to sign up something to her and she’s just not getting it and he just sighs and puts his palms out facing her and the precision hands get the message out immediately.