Secret Dreamer
is a Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic, set in the post-canon of the Future Past timeline. After the world has been saved, with the help of travelers from the past, the world is on the path to being rebuilt. Although most of the Shepherds have gone their separate ways, Severa chose to stay in the capital and join the new pegasus knights, following in her mother's footsteps despite her protests to the contrary. There's another reason that Severa will only admit to herself, however: she's in love with Lucina, and is determined to remain by her side.
In addition to exploring Severa's feelings for Lucina, Secret Dreamer also examines Severa's complicated family life and her efforts to follow in her parents' footsteps by continuing to serve the royal family. It incorporates a number of Original Characters to increase the number of cast interactions—since, due to the Bad Future timeline, 75% of the game's original cast is already dead. The story was categorized as "Fluff, Angst, and Slow-Burn Romance," and so far has lived up to all of those tags, with the focus of the genre varying by chapter.
This summary contains unmarked spoilers for Fire Emblem: Awakening and the Future Past DLC.
Secret Dreamer provides examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: The newly rebuilt pegasus knights are an all-female unit.
- Ascended Extra: According to the author's note for Chapter 4, Teresa was based off of a background character in one of the FMVs.
- Arc Words: "Everything will be all right."
- Back from the Brink: Thanks to the intervention of the Shepherds from the past.
- Bad Future: Takes place entirely in the Future Past timeline, after the parents of the main characters have all died.
- Beta Couple: Noire and Yarne.
- Bodyguard Crush:
- Severa's feelings towards Lucina have a lot of this.
- Both Cordelia and Frederick, towards Chrom.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all her over-the-top enthusiasm, Cynthia shows herself to be a capable commander during Chapter 7, taking decisive action and formulating tactics on the fly.
- Call-Back: Frequently, but most notably "One sword and a world of troubles."
- Cannot Spit It Out: Like mother, like daughter. According to Chapter 10, like her father as well.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Severa spends most of Chapter 2 in this mindset.
- The Chains of Commanding: As sub-commander of the pegasus knights and bodyguard to the Exalt, Severa has a lot more factors to consider than her own feelings.
- Character Development: Severa is portrayed as significantly more mellow than she is in the game, and the perspective used shows that her rough edges cover up how much she cares.
- Combat Medic: In contrast to Cynthia's use of tomes, Severa carries a healing staff during the pegasus knights' training exercise.
- Cry into Chest: Severa witnesses her father crying on her mother's shoulder during Chapter 5.
- Daddy's Girl: Tellingly, Severa usually refers to Cordelia as "Mother" and Frederick as "Daddy" in both narration and dialogue.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Severa for the recruits, following in her father Frederick's footsteps.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Kjelle does this during the first chapter of the festival arc.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Lily during Chapter 3, Severa during Chapter 6.Severa: Oooooooh gods. I hope I'm not drooling.
- A Father to His Men: Despite her harsh criticism of them, Severa shows a lot of concern for the recruits during their first engagement in Chapter 7.
- Flirting Under Fire: Lampshaded by Severa in Chapter 7.
- Heartbroken Badass: Chapter 10 reveals that Frederick never got over the death of the man he loved.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: As she does in the original game, Severa measures a lot of what she does by how much better her mother could have done it.
- Hypocritical Humor: Lampshaded in Chapter 3, when Severa catches herself checking out Lucina after telling off one of her subordinates for something similar.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: One of the main reasons Severa uses to justify not telling Lucina about her feelings.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Any time a character really cries, it is usually described as very messy.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The other main reason for Severa's reticence.
- Lethal Chef: At the beginning of Chapter 4, Cynthia took a leaf out of Lissa's recipe book.
- Meaningful Name: The Japanese word for lily is "yuri."
- Mildly Military: Just as they are in the source material, the Shepherds.
- Mood Whiplash: Multiple times.
- Chapter 4: A light-hearted dinner during the first half of the chapter, a traumatized confession during the second half.
- Chapter 7: The training exercise begins to go wrong when Risen are sighted approaching a nearby village.
- Chapter 12: After a flashback to father-daughter bonding, the second half of the chapter shows how Frederick died.
- Posthumous Character: The entire first generation, but especially Severa's parents, Frederick and Cordelia.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking:
- Lucina.
- Severa and Cynthia, as the commanders of the pegasus unit, are significantly more experienced than most of their subordinates.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: One of the pegasus knight recruits still has nightmares about the war.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Severa.
- True Companions: Although they haven't seen each other in some time, Chapter 9 makes it clear that the Shepherds are still this.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Severa frequently wonders what her parents would think, were they still alive.
- World of Action Girls: Most of the female cast, but special mention goes to Teresa, who is very effective against the Risen in Chapter 7.
- You Must Be Cold: At the end of Chapter 6, Severa offers Lucina her cloak after seeing her shiver.
