Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.
Minor: Dark Flier, Immortal, Exploitive, Swordmaster, 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, Sassy, One Liner, Seamstress, Shephard, Speedy, Cool, Shy, Bookworm, Sweet, Kung Fu, Buff, Lazy, Wingless Flight, Blunt, Elf, Dwarf, Scottish, Melancholic, Punny, Dark Mage, Dragoon.
Standard: Elemental, Deaf, Nurse/Medic, Valmese Tactician, Medusa, Gift from Validar + Evil to Good, Mimic, Emotionless, Crippling Overspecialization (Idiot Savant), Coward, ESP, PTSD, Magician, Handicapped, Secret Helper, Morpher, Dreamwalker, Twins, Animal Whisperer, Tiki Assistant, Deadly Touch, Mind Reader, Doppelganger, D&D magic, Dominatrix, Songstress, Kinky, Matchmaker, Androphobic, Illusionist, Attraction Aura, Ring Maker, Teleporting, Crippled, Depressed, Slave, Love Curse, Geokinetic, Trauma, Siren, Changeling, Shapeshifter.
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Mana Eater Robin, of my own devising.
"There are certain undead that display similar abilities." Laurent says. "Though I cannot say there are any currently known humanoid species that display such abilities as yours naturally. I have found mention of some amulets or magical self-augmentations that have or can grant such abilities as yours, but if that were the case it would still not explain your bizarre hunger."
"Well that's better than nothing I suppose." Robin mutters. "Even if it just reinforces how strange I am.
As long as she can remember, which admittedly isn't all that long, Robin has always been hungry. It's not a hunger food or drink can slake, and sleep does nothing to make her rid of the feeling. It's something she's learned to live with over the three years she's been alive.
As long as she can remember, she's also had an unusual knack for counter-spelling. She can snatch weaker offensive spells right out of the air, which is admittedly unusual in itself. It usually takes too much time to counter-spell for it to be a valid tactic against combat spells.
Robin is aware that her counter-spelling is perhaps not normal. When she speaks with Miriel, or Henry, or Tharja, they all speak of spell weaves and using a combination of pulling apart weaknesses in the structure and brute force to disassemble the spells in question. For Robin it doesn't work that way. She can sense the spell weave, yes, but she doesn't find weaknesses in it or anything. Robin simply grabs spells and takes the energy out of them. There's nothing fancy or complicated about what she does unlike the other mages.
Robin likes the way taking spells makes her feel less hungry. It doesn't last too long, but for that hour or so it's nice to be able to feel normal.
Also, when Robin says she "grabs" a spell, she means that literally. She grabs fireballs out of the air, or intercepts lightning with her hands, or can lay her hands on someone afflicted with a curse and pull the curse out of them. She can also take the mana out of a person, not just a spell, though it tends to take more than a few seconds.
After Robin met Laurent, she finally had some help in understanding herself. Miriel was often too busy to investigate Robin's oddities, so Luarent is a nice help. It's quite a shame her physical appearance is no help. Slightly pink skin, deep purple hair and purple eyes, and a fairly average build are not helpful clues.
"I shall attempt to find more information, but do not raise your hopes too high." Laurent says. "Locating as much information as I did was already quite difficult."
"Duly noted." Robin sighs. "Thank you Laurent."
"It is an honor to be of service, Robin."
###
Robin doesn't know how or why her weapons were enchanted to siphon mana from her enemies, but she will admit it's quite useful. With a single well-thrown dagger she can cripple a mage both physically and in their ability to cast. She can pull mana straight out of their bodies without even needing to touch them with her own hands, and then use the mana she steals to cast spells of her own.
Of course this necessitates her to fight with daggers, which is not optimal on a battlefield, so Robin often has to relegate herself to flanking teams or small unit battles.
If only she could replicate the enchantment and put it on a bow, she could make use of the enchantment in larger battles. Alas, she'll have to settle for demolishing small fights.
Granted, calling this a "small fight" is a misnomer. Even with Robin constantly crippling their ability to cast spells with her daggers, they're still quite a threat.
"To your left!" Robin barks. In hindsight she really should have brought more Shepherds for this. Laurent, Gaius, Noire, and Libra are all solid, but five against twenty is not the best odds. This team is all she could spare from other operations though. They're hitting multiple Grimleal locations today, and this team is just one of several.
Her dagger finds its way into the dark mage's hip, causing the spell they were going to cast to fizzle out as she saps their mana. Noire's arrow finds home in the man's throat a moment later.
With the rush of mana to her system, Robin can then wheel around and throw an elfire at the feet of two other dark mages, forcing them to cancel their spells and back up or be roasted.
"For a warehouse, this is surprisingly heavily guarded." Laurent notes as he too throws an elfire at the dark mages. "I think we have stumbled upon something of value."
"It would seem so." Robin agrees. Her dagger magically returns to its sheath. It has a ten second return time after it is thrown. She draws it again, along with the other one, and throws them both at two more dark mages. "Noire?"
"I-I've got them." The archer replies. Once again her arrows follow up on Robin's throws.
"Libra, move to the side entrance. Gaius, with him!" Robin orders. "Laurent, Noire, we're going through the front. Be prepared."
"Understood."
"G-Got it."
They enter in style. Laurent blasts down the door, and Robin slings some of her unenchanted daggers in a wide spray that forces any grimleal in the area to take cover.
Robin dashes into the room and behind some crates before any the Grimleal have the chance to return fire. She then keeps low to the ground, keeping her head below the top of the crates so she can ambush anyone she comes across.
And come across people she does. Her enchanted daggers find home in a mage's neck and an archer's back. Somewhere further in the warehouse another door slams open, probably Libra and Gaius, and more shouts echo around the massive room.
"Grima shall have your souls!" One of the Grimleal shouts. Black lighting crackles between her hands, increasing in power by the second as more and more strings of lighting form, she raises her hands to launch her devastating spell-
Only for Robin to stick a dagger in her side, cancelling the spell, and then leap on her and slit her throat.
"Honestly, you'd think they'd learn…" Robin mutters. "Laurent!"
"Yes Robin?"
"I'm going around the left. You and Noire push the middle! Gaius and Libra have the side."
"Understood." The man nods. "Noire, I am counting on you to protect me."
"O-Okay!" Noire squeaks.
Robin makes her way down the side, using crates as cover and abusing her returning daggers for all they're worth. She progresses much faster than the other two groups, and soon finds herself near the back of the warehouse. She takes out some guards, then turns her attention to a few locked doors in the back of the building. These don't look like exits. These are small, special rooms.
Using concentrated fire spells, Robin breaks all the locks. One room is an empty office. She leaves that alone for now. The next room is a stockpiled of tomes with two dark mages frantically using teleportation spells to send them away. Robin puts a stop to that with her daggers, and moves on.
The last room is interesting. It's filled to the roof with crates, of which four dark mages are slowly teleporting away one by one. Once again, Robin ends the operation and the dark mage's lives.
Taking advantage of a crowbar (a Plegian tool, and a quite a useful one! Ylisse should consider adopting them) Robin pries open a crate on ground level to see what's inside.
A collection of blue mana gems twinkles out at her from inside the unassuming wooden box. Robin cracks open another, and finds red gems this time. Every single one of these crates is stuffed to the brim with mana gems.
Robin stares at the valuable collection before her. Her supernatural hunger gnaws at her stomach and the edges of her mind, and almost without thinking she reaches into the first crates and pulls out one of the gems. It fits comfortably in her hand, having a pleasant shape and weight.
She brings the gem up to her mouth, and bites.
Laurent finds her in that same room after the rest of the warehouse has been cleared. Shattered, dull, and drained gems litter the floor around Robin. She continues to pull gem after gem out of the crates, shatter them with her teeth, and suck in the wisps of mana that escape the containers. Robin has consumed so much mana that Laruent can see it leaking off her. It pushes out of the top of her back only to be sucked right back in near the bottom in a constant purple stream, giving her the loose appearance of wings as the mana is cycled in and out of her body.
It's with great effort and help from Libra that Laurernt manages to pull Robin out of the room.
###
Robin fingers one of her new mana gems as Laurent flips through his notes. The impulse to drain the gems has faded after her initial feeding frenzy, but after so long without feeling full she can't help but worry, if irrationally, that she'll lose access to these gems and go back to feeling hungry all the time.
She hates that she's reliant on others for these gems as well. She needs Miriel, Laurent, Ricken, and Tharja to donate some of their power into these gems so she can feed from the gems at a later time.
"I think, perhaps, I have found a connection." Laurent says. He shows her a picture in his notes. It's a stylized drawing of a small girl with bright pink skin and hair with large butterfly-like wings coming out of her back. She seems to be casting fire over an entire town. "I found this drawing and others like it in history books from time to time. Have you heard of a species called the arcanomoths?"
"I haven't."
"Well, briefly then, they are a seemingly extinct species that rivaled the power of true dragons." Laurent explains. "They were known for their immense magical power. Whereas dragons have a certain amount of physical power, arcanomoths' power came entirely from magic."
"Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"
"Well, when you gorged yourself on mana-" Laurent gestures to the mana gem in her hand. "You manifested a skill that usually takes years of training, and was thought to be a inborn ability of the arcanomoths. You manifested the skill to mana cycle, which is a process to deal with excess mana in the body. So long as mana is given something to do, it can be prevented from dissipating, and so you can keep excess mana outside your body without a container by constantly expelling and reabsorbing it in a constant stream. For mages this tends to manifest and glowing rings around our wrists, but for Arcanomoths it manifested as massive wing shapes protruding from their backs."
"So those wings aren't actually wings?" Robin says, pointing to the picture again.
"Precisely. They are not physical wings whatsoever. Those "wings" are all the excess mana the arcanomoth could not hold in its body. There are certain pictures and old texts that suggest individual "wings" could reach the side of houses in particularly powerful individuals."
"So… so I'm an arcanomoth?" Robin asks.
"Unlikely. You would not have such an adult body if that were the case. Arcanomoths were famously prepubescent in their appearances. Additionally, your passive mana generation would be astronomical rather than the constant deficiency you seem to have." Laurent says. "More likely you are some distant offshoot of the same genus or family, possibly with mana cycling as the defining feature. Either that or sometime in your unknown past you were subject to some change in your biology, potentially through a ritual, that gave you such a skill. Perhaps the potential reason for your hunger is that your body constantly tries to cycle mana even when it does not have any in excess, resulting in a hungry feeling as the mana in your body at any one time is low, even if your standing mana level overall is normal."
"Huh." Robin says. "Well, at least I know what's up with me now, but that's a hassle."
"At the very least it can be a boon." Laurent offers. "Your standing mana is more than it would be otherwise. If you make use of it, you are potentially a more potent mage than most, and you even have the ability to easily replenish your mana through your daggers."
"I'd rather not have yet another source of sustenance to manage." She grumbles.
"My apologies. If I knew a way to suppress this ability, I would happily tell you." Laurent says apologetically.
"Not your fault." Robin sighs. "It's just another thing I have to deal with, and I suppose it's not fatal or anything if I don't eat mana."
Laurent grimaces. "Robin-"
"It's fine Laurent." Robin reassures. "Thanks for all your help."
"As you wish…"
A bit of a weird place to end, but sure. This chapter sprang entirely from that one scene of Robin eating mana out of the gems in the warehouse. That came to my mind, and I based the chapter around making that happen.
patattack: :D
bauers374: He doesn't have that hat, sorry.
Yes, that's him, that's exactly how he works. I could have dragged that joke on for longer, but I refrained from doing so.
That's… not the first way that comes to my mind to remember, but whatever works for you. I'm not sure if there's a concrete line where strategy ends and tactics begin anyways.
Guardian54: It wasn't supposed to be that actually. That happened accidentally. It was supposed to be an overly-long joke about how Robin draws all the wrong conclusions from whatever he notices. In hindsight, it does end up looking like that though. Modern gender relations is a minefield, for which both sides are responsible.
Plasma Dragon 312: I'm not quite sure what would give you the impression he couldn't read, but sure, whatever floats your boat!
HQL: Thanks, and no. We're done with that joke thank you.
Cyberchao X: Mostly true. The line is very thin, especially because everyone is hyper-sensitive to these sorts of issues now, and minor mistakes can be very easily misconstrued. When it comes to dating, women do indeed have most of the power. Science actually backs this up to some extent (if we want to look at things in a vacuum and ignore culture and other influences for a moment). It's part of the choosy/competitive dynamic a lot of species have for mate selection. Evolutionary psychology at work. I won't go into it right now or else I'd ramble, but yes, it is unfortunate. Thankfully human beings are (supposedly) intelligent creatures that can recognize this unfairness and work past it… but considering humanity's track record so far on dealing with unfairness maybe we shouldn't count on that.