"You...you know she's The Voice, right? People worship her. They don't ask her to have dinner."
—Robin
The Voice and the Vessel is a Fire Emblem fanfic written by abomb30.
The story picks up right at the Fire Emblem: Awakening chapter "The Threat of Silence" in which Robin saves Tiki's life during the battle. From there the story follows Awakening's general storyline as Robin deals with his lack of self-confidence, Tiki tries to become readjusted to the world after being isolated for so long, and they both come to terms with their budding feelings for one another and the unfortunate implications of that relationship.
As of September 16th, 2018, at 61 chapters, the main story is complete, with 3 additional side story chapters currently available to read through. The fanfiction has gained a modest amount of attention for both its quality and the romantic leads not being the typical pairings in the Fire Emblem Fandom, earning it respectable ratings on the sites it is posted to.
The link to the FanFiction.Net version can be found here
and the link to the Archive of Our Own version can be found here.
This fic provides examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Robin is thirty-two years old, Tiki is around three thousand.
- Alone Among the Couples: Robin is one of the few members of the army who is still single. This doesn't exactly help his loneliness.
- Amicable Exes: Robin and Maribelle had the beginnings of a relationship, but it fell apart due to Robin's confidence issues. Despite this, the two are still close friends. Robin's lost memories show that Aversa and him are this too, despite the banter.
- Battle Couple: In true Fire Emblem tradition, couples tend to be partners on and off the battlefield.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 34 has the cast take a small detour in the form of the 'Summer Scramble' DLC chapter.
- Beta Couple: By the beginning of the story most of the army has already been paired off, and a few of said couples play this to Robin and Tiki, most notably Cherche and Libra.
- Break Them by Talking: Grima attempts to do this to Robin more than once. Keyword being 'attempts'. He actually finds the weak point eventually. Tiki.
- Character Development: A surprisingly notable example with Tharja, of all people. She starts the story just as obsessive over Robin as ever, despite being married, however as time goes on she becomes more devoted to her husband and even apologizes to Robin that someone else has taken her heart.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: For a guy who thinks he's only average at best, Robin is the center of a lot of attention from his female allies.
- Eating the Eye Candy:
- Despite being hard on himself, Robin is on the receiving end of this several times by several different women.
- Tiki also gets this treatment from Robin a number of times, not that she's complaining.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tiki accuses Lucina of being this during the 'Judgement' scene. Even going as far to assume Lucina would be willing to kill her. The last part was probably the anger talking.
- Heroic BSoD: Robin has a particularly bad one upon finding Libra's seemingly dead body.
- Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Or cloak, to be more specific. This trope actually inspires Robin to get Tiki a copy of his cloak for herself later on.
- Insecure Love Interest: Robin's lack of confidence turns him into this.
- Interspecies Romance: The story of a human and a dragon falling in love. And then the human turns out to be at least part dragon, but a different type of dragon than his dragon lover, so we'll leave it at Zig-Zagged
- Lap Pillow: Tiki is particularly fond of this.
- Like Brother and Sister: Lissa and Chrom treat Robin like he's another member of the family.
- Mayfly–December Romance: As to be expected. Tiki being a Manakete means her lifespan absolutely dwarfs Robin's. Subverted. As it turns out Robin also has dragon heritage. The characters are unsure what that means at the time, but ultimately it is revealed that as long as Grima lives, Robin will as well. In the end, Robin remains with Tiki throughout her entire lifespan, both of them using that time to develop civilization to the point where sealing Grima goes from the massive ordeal in Awakening to merely a recurring nuisance. He only kills Grima for good when Tiki is ready to pass on.
- The Missus and the Ex: Though their interaction was a little awkward, Tiki and Maribelle ended up being the civil type.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Frederick fears the worst when it comes to Robin and Lissa's close relationship. This is resolved upon meeting his son, leading him to even apologize to Robin for being so critical.
- Not Blood Siblings: Aversa is...well, Aversa. She still happily flirts and teases her 'Big Brother'. Once he gets his memories back, Robin remembers he actually DID have a relationship with her when he was younger
- Pet the Dog: The author admits that the focus on Noire in Chapter 34 was very much meant to be a Throw the Dog a Bone.
- Taking the Bullet: The very first chapter makes it clear Robin isn't afraid to put his life on the line for people. Tiki proves she isn't either by returning the favor during the battle with Walhart
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Robin and Grima do this with one another. A. Lot.
- Sadistic Choice: The problem of either just sealing Grima away or slaying him for good weighs heavily on Robin and Tiki. At Tiki's request, Chrom made the choice for them both. Knocking out Robin so he couldn't sacrifice himself.
- Shipper on Deck: At first it's just Lissa who wants Robin and Tiki to get together, but in time other members of the army seem to get on board too.
- Sleep Cute: Inevitable considering this is Tiki we're talking about.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: they are The Voice and The Vessel after all. Gets even worse after The Reveal that Robin is not just The Vessel, but Grima's son. Fortunately, it is ultimately subverted by Robin and Tiki working together to build society up to contain Grima, giving them a very long life together. Once Tiki is ready to pass on and Robin kills off Grima for good, the Divine Dragon elders join Robin with Tiki so they can be together once she ascends to take up Naga's mantle.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: In the end while Grima is sealed away for a thousand years, Robin and Tiki work together to help guide the world to a state resembling the 21st century by the time Grima awakens. Against fighter jets and missiles, Grima is brought back down to the ground as soon as he rises, leaving the current Exalt to re-seal him with Falchion easily.
