Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.
Minor: Dark Flier, Immortal, Boxer (Pugilist), Exploitive, Swordmaster, Angry Cinnamon Roll, Tripping, Perpetual Cheer, Chef, Blacksmith, Pegasus Knight, Teacher, Librarian, Masochist, Literal-Minded, Authoritative, Phobia, Thicc, Tsundere, Damsel in Distress, Gangrel's Child, Communist, Bomber, Bear Cavalry, Flying, ADHD, Super Strength, Patriotic, Scottish, Sassy, One Liner, Seamstress, Shephard, Speedy, Cool, Shy, Bookworm, Sweet, Kung Fu, Buff, Lazy, Wingless Flight, Blunt, Paranoid, Elf, Dwarf, Scottish, Melancholic, Punny, Dark Mage.
Standard: Elemental, Deaf, Nurse/Medic, Valmese Tactician, Medusa, Gift from Validar + Evil to Good, Mimic, Emotionless, Crippling Overspecialization (Idiot Savant), Coward, ESP, POW, PTSD, Magician, Mute, Handicapped, Secret Helper, Morpher, Dreamwalker, Twins, Regenerating, Animal Whisperer, Naga/Tiki Assistant, Deadly Touch, Mind Reader, Doppelganger, Arachne, D&D magic, Umbramancer, Dominatrix, Songstress, Kinky, Matchmaker, Androphobic, Illusionist, Attraction Aura, Ring Maker, Teleporting, Crippled, Puppet, Depressed, Slave, Love Curse, Detective, Geokinetic, Trauma, Siren, Changeling.
Unlikely: Chrom's child, Minotaur, Paladin, Werewolf, Future Soldier, Bounty Hunter, Weather control, Kleptomaniac, Druid, Steampunk, Shadow Familiar, Magic Augmentation, Lucky, Exile, Piper (Charmer), Gladiator, Witch Doctor, Centaur, Drunk, Demon, Punk, Harpy, Revenant, Luck Manipulation, Demon Summoner, Megalomaniac, Kitsune, King of Plegia, Mood Ring, Reverse Aging, Hammerspace, Prostitute, Demon Hunter, Cyborg, Deadlord, Rebellion, Einherjar, Trap, Yandere, Living Weapon, Size Shifter, Queen of Plegia, Gluttonous, Stretchy, Alchemist, Protoss, Spirit Manipulation, Invisible, Plegian Honor Guard, Mecha, Kryptonian, Creator, Orc, Memory Stealing Respawn, Racer, Khan, Misfortune, Vampire Hunter, Imaginary Actualization, Death, Resurrection, Force, Merchant, Background Music, Variable, Civilian, Natural Disaster, Mental Noise Projection, Hidden OP, Summoner, Cyclops, Teleporter, Cryokinetic, Genie, Judge, Intangibility, Fortune Teller, Serial Killer, Magic Fixit, Drakengard Restoration, Ying-Yang, Childhood Friend, Cyberpunk, Chrom's Mother, Obsessed, Berserker, Phase Shift, Gravity Manipulation, Hallucinating, Bladesoul, Zombie, Double Entendre, Shared Body/Two Souls, Cannibal, Violent, Waterbender, Casanova, Cupid, Undertaker, Master Thief, Guard, Faceless, Shadow, Age Control, Cradle Snatcher, Emo, Nun, Courier, Haunted Knight Armor, Egyptian, Sentient Object, Shit Lord, Court Wizard, Naga's sibling, Mad Queen, Artist, Predator, Cheshire Cat, Radio Host, Chimera, Wendigo, Witch, Symbiote, Hivemind, Hammerspace, Anna, Mother Nature, Psychopath, Stripper, Painting, Grima Parts, Knightmare, Super, Swimsuit, Bunny Outfit, One Punch, Idol, Chef, Rampage, Housewife, Determination, Vessel of Naga, Instant Expert, Time Travel, Hermit, Alternate Dimension 'Twin', Legendary, Resistance, Memory Regain, Umbra Witch, Naga, Aquatic, Hexblade Warlock, Dragon, Demon of Choice, Demon of Temptation, Affliction, Good Samaritan, Gallant, Rosannite Tactician, Leeroy, Dungeon, Apparition, Unwilling, Wildlife Commander, Consistent Kidnapee, Grenadier, Magic Creature, Alternating Mind Control, Sothis in the Mind, Exalt, Unicorn, Pegasus, Alicorn, Star Lord, Slenderman, Bird Laguz, Junk Dealer, Gate Guardian, Shaman, Ghostbuster, Exorcist, King, Soldier, Bird Wings, Failed Vessel, Of the Corn, Valentian, Harem, Genie, Car, Incubus, National Personification, Gravity Magic, Kraken, Zora, Kirby.
Child Robin as suggested by Fantasy Paradise, and also Broken Robin as suggested by Lobotimite.
The bandit raid was dealt with by the time the Shepherds arrived, which was arguably a good thing, but there was still a price for it. The Shepherds hadn't arrived in time, of course there was going to be a price.
The woman somehow manages to look peaceful despite the giant gash across her chest. Her head rests on a well with a smile on her face. Her limp arm is still draped around the small form curled into her side. It's not difficult to tell that they're related. They're both pale, clearly plegian, and wear matching longcoats (albeit the child's is much smaller), and have white hair.
The village is eerily silent as the Shepherds march in. Some of the villagers glare accusingly, condemning them for not arriving sooner and not preventing this.
The woman is dead. She doesn't move; her chest doesn't rise as she takes breaths, and when Lissa checks her neck there's no pulse. She's held in her sitting position only by the child, a young boy who doesn't look older than five, huddled against her.
Hesitantly, Chrom kneels down with Lissa in front of the boy. He shares a look, and she gives a distressed shrug. She doesn't know what to say or do anymore than he does.
Reaching out, Chrom touches the boy's shoulder. Bleary and tear-filled brown eyes soon look back at him, and Chrom feels worse than ever. Still, he forces himself to speak. "Hello there, I'm Chrom."
"And I'm Lissa." His sister adds softly. "Who are you?"
The boy looks at them mutely as tears run down his face. His hands have a death-grip on the woman's coat. Chrom doesn't fancy trying to pry him away.
"Do you have a name?" Lissa prompts again. When the boy still doesn't respond, Lissa tries another track. "Is this your mother?"
The boy nods. It's barely noticeable, just a slight incline of the head, but it's progress.
"She was very brave, wasn't she?" Lissa continues. "She defeated the bandits, right?"
The boy nods again.
This is a lot harder than Lissa was expecting. The boy isn't speaking, how is she supposed to break the news that his mother is dead if he doesn't even ask? She can't just blurt it out… but she has to tell him, right? "Look, umm… your mother… is gone."
The boy blinks uncomprehendingly at her. His already tight grip on his mother's cloak tightens even further, turning his knuckles white, and he turns to look at his mother's corpse. The implication, clearly, is that his mother is right here.
"Gone is the wrong word…" Lissa mutters. She wrings her hands. "She, erm, she… she's dead."
She hates how blunt that is, but she has to be. The boy is just that: a boy, a child. She has to be clear with him.
The boy sways in place. "Mother doesn't die… she makes people dead…"
Beside them Chrom grimaces. This isn't going well. It was never going to go well, but this is worse than expected. Chrom was expecting crying or panic or something, but his blank-faced tension is somehow even worse.
"Normally yes… but even the best warrior can fall." Chrom murmurs. He also worries about a child saying that his mother makes people dead. That's not normal in his experience. "She's gone little one."
The boy doesn't respond. His eyes stare at Chrom, or more accurately they stare past him, not really seeing anything. At this point Lissa manages to gently pry the boy's fingers off his mother's cloak and take him into her arms.
There remains the question of what to do with the body. Do they just bury her here? The woman doesn't look local, she might have family elsewhere, but unless there's some identification or a letter on her…
Chrom silently waves Frederick over and whispers for him to search the body. Lissa seems to understand the plan and makes a point of taking the boy away from the scene.
Frederick's search produces a few hundred gold (that's a fairly sizable amount!), a steel sword, a thoron tome, a book on the basics of strategy and tactics, rations, and a few maps, but no identification.
They have a brief debate over what to do with her cloak. It looks expensive, and while usually a person is buried with the clothes they were wearing the cloak seems unique enough that Chrom suggests they keep it for the boy. Frederick agrees, and they gingerly strip off the bloodstained garment. It has a cut across the front, but nothing severe enough that it can't be repaired.
"So, uh…" Vaike coughs when Chrom and Frederick return with the woman's things. "Do we have a kid now?"
Chrom gazes at the child, who is now sitting against a log with Lissa on one side and Sumia on the other. They seem to be talking to him, but he isn't reacting. "I suppose we do..."
It almost seems disrespectful with how rushed and basic the funeral is considering what the woman did for the village and that her son is watching, but there's only so much that can be done with the resources and time available. They bury her in a grave marked by her sword, reminiscent of a wartime burial or the Feroxi tradition.
"A warrior's burial." Chrom thinks. "Simple, practical, the best we can give on short notice."
That doesn't make him feel any better about it. Especially when they have to physically pick up the boy to get him to leave the gravesite.
###
It takes two week before they manage to learn the boy's name (Robin). It takes almost as long to get him to eat more than a spoonful of food every day. Robin was already small and somewhat skinny when they found him, but his near inactivity and refusal to eat or drink has exacerbated those features.
There is no safe place to hand off Robin. With the constant raids on Ylissian villages, they can't in good conscience leave him in danger like that. Sure, staying with the Shepherds isn't the safest thing either, but the Shepherds at least are highly trained warriors compared to average village militia.
Simply due to the fact that all the other Shepherds are often busy fighting it falls to Emmet of all people to watch over Robin. The dry, hostile quartermaster rightfully doesn't strike any of them as being the person who should be taking care of a child, but they don't really have much of a choice. Emmet is the only Shepherd that doesn't go into combat when battle arises, and since he doesn't really leave the supply tent all that often it's easy for him to keep an eye on Robin who also rarely moves.
"Your move."
Emmet has, however, found something he can convince Robin to do. They found a board game among his mother's possessions in the inn they were staying in: a complicated strategy game by the name of War of Worlds. Robin apparently knows how to play, and he will play if it's presented to him. He plays robotically, but at the very least he's doing something.
Robin takes a long time to make his moves, so Emmet walks around doing other tasks in between moves. He counts the swords and identifies which ones need repairs, then goes back to make another move, then talleys how many arrows they have, and so on.
So far Emmet has lost every single round. Despite being young Robin is undoubtedly a prodigy at the game. He rarely loses so much as a single unit.
Robin doesn't complain no matter how Emmet sets up the game. Even if he forces Robin to have a certain setup or uses a custom map Robin doesn't complain and plays the game out…
...and Emmet is going to take advantage of it. They have a tactical genius in their midst, why not use their skills? Is he exploiting a traumatized child? Yes. Will it save innumerable lives to do so? Also yes. Emmet isn't really concerned with the morality of it. As far as he's concerned he's not harming the kid, just making use of something they would be doing anyways.
Their War of Worlds game is already a daily occurence, so Emmet starts customizing the scenarios more. He pays attention to whatever battle Chrom, Frederick, and Virion are discussing, then crafts the daily game to be a mirror of that. He puts Robin in charge of the Shepherds (or as close as he can represent the Shepherds in the game) and he plays the enemies. It's not perfect of course, Emmet is well aware his own tactical skills are nonexistent and therefore the situations aren't perfect representations of what actually happens, but Robin's solutions could still be useful.
After doing this a few times, Emmet invites Virion to play as Robin's opponent for the next game. The archer instantly realizes what the map is mimicking (their next projected fight past the Plegian border) and plays the game with great interest.
Robin smokes him effortlessly, but Virion is nodding to himself by the end.
"I see, we must deal with the dark mages first, and use our own in the sands where infantry will be slow to reach them." Virion mutters. "That is a good plan…"
And that's how Robin becomes an unofficial tactician of the Shepherds.
###
Emmet wakes up when it's still dark to the sound of rustling fabric. On instinct he grabs his levin sword from its place beside his head and pushes magic down the blade, lighting it up in a crackle of electricity so he can see around him.
The rustling fabric is, of course, just Robin. The little boy stays in the same tent as the quartermaster, seeing as the man is responsible for taking care of him.
The crackling electricity from the sword reveals that the boy has crawled out of his sleeping bag and over to his pack of things. He's dragged out his mother's coat, which he wears everyday anyhow despite it being far to big for him.
Robin doesn't react to the sudden light or the crackling of electricity. He finishes taking out the coat, drags it to his sleeping bag, and cuddles into it as he goes back to sleep.
Sighing, Emmet unlights is sword and does the same. This isn't too unusual by Robin's standards. He grabs his mother's things at arbitrary times fairly frequently. No one has been successful in getting the boy to explain why, so Robin's thoughts remain a mystery.
It's a shame really. The Shepherds can't really help him if he doesn't talk. It's not like the quartermaster hasn't tried, he has, but Robin remains silent as ever.
There has to be something that can be done…
###
"Robin." Emmet says after putting away their daily game. Robin stares listlessly at the table, fiddling with his mother's thoron tome in his hands. "That was your mother's, right?"
A rhetorical question, just to see if Robin will respond. The boy nods, which is a promising sign.
"Was she good with it?" Another rhetorical question, at least when directed towards a child. Of course he's going to think his mother was good with it. Predictably, Robin nods again. "She was a tactician, right?"
Another nod. At least he's responding.
"What was she like?" Emmet questions softly. He's asking anything that might get the boy to talk. Anything regarding his mother he tends to react to in some capacity, so Emmet is banking on that.
For a moment it seems like Robin won't say anything, and this will be another disappointing failure in trying to get him to open up. By luck, or maybe just because Emmet chose the subject matter well, Robin does respond.
"She was strong…" Robin murmurs. "The best…"
"How?"
"She was smart. She could beat anyone. She beat Father." Robin whispers.
"Well, that's an ominous tidbit." Emmet notes. "Beat?"
"Won." Robin mutters. His grip tightens on the tome. "He was bad."
It's not really Emmet's place to decide whether Robin's mother was in the right or not, so he doesn't bother. "She sounds incredible."
Robin nods once more.
"Can you tell me more? What do you remember about her?"
Robin looks up at him blankly, then quietly asks "why…?"
Fair enough question. Robin has no reason to assume he actually cares. Emmet hates to think of it in terms of "bullshitting a reason", but that is essentially what he's doing. It's not that he doesn't care, it's that he doesn't have a reason for asking beyond that he cares. "I don't know my own parents, so I'm curious about yours." Emmet offers. "My last name, Tealeaf? That's the last name for all orphaned or unwanted children in the Central dukedom. It means I have no parents that cared to claim me."
That's all true, minus the part about it being the reason he's curious. He's curious out of concern and a want to get the boy to talk. Emmet has long since come to terms with his own lack of parents.
"So, not having parents of my own, I want to know about yours."
Emmet waits for the response. He keeps his expression as neutral as possible, trying not to betray his anxiety. If this doesn't work, he doesn't know what will. He's not cut out for this…
So it's somewhat of a miracle to him that Robin slowly, quietly, starts recounting what he remembers.
I could go on, but I think this encompasses the idea the best. I didn't come into this expecting Emmet to be included at all, but he seemed to fit.
B1ackAshes: Unnerving was what I was going for. I'm happy it worked.
bauers374: No, that's not a misspelling, but it's not really a different character either. The whole point is that things are different every cycle. Not just Robin, but other characters too. Sometimes they have a different gender, a different hair color, a different name.
It would work as a finale, wouldn't it? I had never considered that. Good point.
bwburke94: Are you talking about a specific story? In the general sense, yes, this is an infinite loop.
Darkness is complete: Noted.
Roasted Butter: No, there's no strictly aquatic Robin on the list. All of your ideas are noted.
Guest: There are so many things I could consider making a story out of, but I don't have time for all of them. If you want something similar, the idea for this chapter in specific came from "25 Lives" by StarrNight. You can find it in my favourite stories tab if you want.
RINGDONGDANG: We'll see.
DarkyTime: Alas, the chapters can only be so long before they're unsuited to be one-shots (Chained Lady excluded of course). I see the potential there though.
TheForgottenSpartan: Fair enough, glad you liked it.