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hartsgold · 5 years

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♡ + secrets hehe

words & headcanons / closed.

claude is an incredibly private person while sort of masquerading that he wears his heart on his sleeve? ( to some extent, he does… a lot of claude’s emotions are plain on his face when the circumstance calls for it, but he also has an immaculate poker face and whatever he’s presenting as in a moment is something he’s chosen to do. )

while he’s in fódlan under the cover of not being heir to the almyran throne, it’s no wonder that he has to keep certain things to himself. it’s funny because there are absolutely moments where he alludes to almyran traditions with people in vague terms. ( he tells annette about celebrations and dances they did where he was from! ) but whenever pressed about where he’s from or how he’s met nader, he simply deflects or turns the question back around. there are enough suspicious eyes on him as it is –– it’s sort of painfully pivotal that he doesn’t have even more rumors going around, so of course, his identity is a secret.

there’s a delightful hypocrisy ( that claude is undoubtedly aware of ) in wanting other people’s secrets, but not being able to enlighten others when it comes to his. at least, not with most of his allies.

for example, he says things like:“Though, I wouldn’t mind sharing if you were to tell me some of your secrets.”“Besides, you’ve opened up to me quite a bit, but I still can’t let you in on my own secrets. “

but he’s also selectively upfront. he opens up to people like byleth –– as well as marianne eventually and sort of cyril, but in some circumstances it’s hard for him to feel like the gravity of his secrets are the same as someone else’s. that’s not to say he doesn’t understand that other people have dangerous/intense secrets, it’s just that revealing his in exchange don’t always feel balanced, because there’s so much at stake for him.

on top of that, it’s difficult for him to really trust people… so obviously opening up willy nilly isn’t something he can afford to do when his dream involves the careful machinations of being able to make social maneuvers / ease his way around tens of hundreds of difficult people, all with strong wills that he has to understand inside and out. and to learn to adjust to. and to be able to help them help him.

essentially, he’s constantly working a spiderweb of strings and trying to understand the people around him. in order to best do that, he needs to not have people digging into his past or wondering what his motives might be, were his origins at the forefront. ( also, years of enduring prejudice and feeling like he doesn’t quite belong definitely exacerbate how private he is, and how urgent the necessity to keep to himself feels. he’s tired of flagrant suspicions and assumptions of the kind of person he is. ) claude isn’t particularly tight-lipped. he’s just careful about what he says, and quick to redirect conversations that attempt to corner him or figure him out.

but his secrets aside, i think it’s hilarious how he chases other people’s secrets –– even small ones! claude basically can’t stand not knowing things. he likes to know everything about the people around him in order to move forward.

“That said, taking a secret by force isn’t my style. That’s why I devised a different approach. Relentless nagging. (…) Oh well. Guess I’d better give up on trying to get you to tell me yourself. Instead… why don’t I tell you about the theory I’ve come up with?”

big secrets, like who flayn is, are definitely ones that don’t fly under his radar… but claude even likes to pry open things like his allies’ hobbies and passions, like annette’s. and marianne’s is definitely one example, where he makes a few attempts at getting answers through being charming / warm ( which obviously works for him sometimes ), but when that doesn’t, he starts bargaining with his own ideas of what the situation is. he literally tells flayn that he could guess her or seteth’s situation and likely ‘trick a reaction out of them.’ which is true! claude reads people every day. micro-expressions are his forte.

i really went wild on this one, but um. he loves his secrets and he loves to be knowing other people’s secrets, is the thing!

#halfknighted #❛ ・ﾟ that poison of mine enlightens me‚ knows its skill — headcanon. ✧#❛ ・ﾟ when we're free‚ we can change the whole world — asks. ✧

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