#﹠✦ ᶤ ᵇᵉᵗ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᶤᵈᶰ'ᵗ ᵏᶰᵒʷ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶤ ʷᵃˢ ᵈᵃᶰᵍᵉʳᵒᵘˢ .op

[grimidol]

“Can I go now? I have diplomatic immunity, or whatever.”    @rcdhawk // sc.

[grimidol]

“You’re always tagging along with... Fuck, what’s ‘is name?” ... Masoyoshi Shido, right. Instead of appending the realization to his aborted statement (which had been in his native tongue anyway-- unless the one who’d caught his eye happened to understand Arabic the clarification would hardly matter), Robin takes a drag from the cigarette clenched between his fingers. His brows are knit, and he, deep in thought; Validar’s just as deep in sketchy shit with numerous politicians, but Shido specifically gives Robin chills. The question of where Robin recognizes Akechi from may be answered, but another arises. He isn’t sure what the other teenager has to do with Shido. Maybe it isn’t really his business. Validar’s political aspirations aren’t his business, either, but that doesn’t stop Robin from knowing all about them, even going so far as to occasionally manipulate their course. Of course he’s going to try digging his talons into this boy. He drops the butt of his smoke and grinds it into ash beneath his heel before holding out his hand for a shake. “Hey, I don’t think we’ve properly met. I’m the ambassador’s... protege. Or a trouble-making nuisance, depending on who you ask.” His Japanese is accented, but essentially fluent.  “Robin Yusuf.”   @whtcts // sc.

[grimidol]

A waste of energy. Robin tends to treat company this way, as an imposition, unless his visitor happens to be the well-liked commander at the point of their country’s sharpest blade-- the Shepherds. Not only does he prefer to keep to himself-- while the work he has to do is never truly complete; all that he does can only benefit Chrom’s army. Sometimes his workaholic tendencies get the better of him. 

The total of hours he has spent consecutively awake at this point could be best described as gratuitous. Dark lines set in beneath his eyes which never truly faded to begin with-- they’re especially pronounced today. It is the relatively peaceful week following a battle that finds Robin in this state. All the days blur into one another, but the fighting he clearly remembers. How couldn’t he, when he’s been reviewing it in his head nonstop?

A waste of energy, he thought, and not for the first time. Resources, too. The battle plan had been thrown together more hastily than Robin liked, and for the sake of ... just whom, he’d already forgotten. At least it had worked, he supposed, and they’d gained an ally for their troubles.

Untrained manaketes were vulnerable, weak links in their cohesive strategies. Nowi’s growth had taught him, however, that experience would fine-tune them into holy terrors in combat. He’s already begun to consider how another will avail their war efforts. The newest they’d picked up already knew how to fight, thankfully-- and he was impressive. 

He finds interruptions to his work rather less impressive, and though he’s the one to have carelessly knocked shoulders with their latest recruit while walking past in something of a daze (with his nose in a book, no less, though he isn’t reading it so much as he is staring at the pages with glazed eyes and hoping its glyphs somehow reach his brain through his tired haze), he huffs in displeasure. He doesn’t even look up. There’s little evidence he even knows who he’d almost run into.

"Watch where you’re going, wouldn’t you?"     @escutcheoningly​ // sc.

[grimidol]

✦ COHRODE. ❞

Robin has been acquainted with nobility before. If he cared to, he might speculate that his own veins carry noble blood. He didn’t think much of titles, however, and he loathed his father—–  so, he hardly desired to reflect long upon his parentage. Apart from the potential claim to an undesired throne, he had never thought ❛noble❜ to be an apt descriptor of himself; and neither was he modest. 

His expectations regarding individuals of similar social standing had loosened after meeting a fair few, but the first he thought of was always Maribelle. She had always struck him as elegant, proud, and self-assured. While those limited traits did not showcase her full depth, all were true to her character– and her character was unmistakably that of a noblewoman. 

These thoughts came fleetingly to Robin’s mind when his gaze was drawn to the blond man sitting nearby. In his hands was an exceedingly faded text; Robin could barely discern the design of the cover between slender fingers. Judging by the challenging expression which its page the volume had been acquired recently, and its owner now meant to decipher its contents but hadn’t been in luck. The stranger was straight-backed and serious-looking. At a glance, this man reminded Robin of Maribelle, but ... something about the picture was just off.  

While the hood of his well-loved tactician’s coat was up, leaving much of his face in shadow, Robin stared. He kept staring until finally he felt that he had to speak up.

❝You’re holding it upside - down.❞