rin russel

now — to what really matters here

coffee shop au for emmrook. but they both hate coffee

tian likes sweet drinks — like cocoa, juice, lemonade, etc. he works at a coffee shop because it's easy to combine with his studies

emmrich likes tea. he gets a small black tea with sugar at the coffee shop every day — except weekends, obviously — because it's on his way to work

one day they start talking. at first it's just a few phrases — about the weather, or city transport, or something else like that. but little by little...

well, you know how it happens

i just find this concept incredibly fun because it's a coffee shop au with a barista who doesn't even drink coffee and a regular customer who only buys tea. and also it's the only acceptable version of a coffee shop au for me because i have anxiety and coffee is my personal enemy

but last night i suddenly thought: what if hurt/comfort emmrook, but reversed? what if tian is the one taking care of emmrich after... i don't know, the first quest in blackthorn manor, for example? where emmrich tried to free the imprisoned spirits and it took a lot out of him

and now i can't stop imagining this

tian tries to do something for him, but doesn't know how and is afraid of being pushy, because he has never really taken care of someone before. at least, not someone he is in love with... even if he doesn't understand it yet. and emmrich, of course, insists that he is alright. but deep down he is a little — just a little — flattered by how much tian worries

i was just messing around with datv’s photo mode instead of sleeping before work and somehow ended up with frames from a romantic short film

this is what keeps me up at night

more than that my rook is red-haired and green-eyed. and canonically a mage. and lives in the woods

so... it’s literally the inquisitor and witch trope

emmrich has a mug with dancing skeletons in silly old-fashioned hats. a present from a young actor about ten years ago. and he still actually uses it

tian keeps stubbornly trying to secretly vape inside the theatre because going outside is, apparently, too much work

all the actors bring their own water bottles to rehearsals, and yet they constantly get mixed up and someone is always drinking from the wrong one. and it’s such a baseline situation by now that no one even reacts anymore

tian shows off his vocal abilities by performing tiktok hits

i mean yes i was really into musicals as a teenager. i went to the theatre a lot, attended fan meetings with actors, was pretty deep into the russian theatre scene, etc etc

but oh my god? that was over five years ago???

and you know what?

i think emmrich would like chekhov i think "the cherry orchard" is an extremely emmrich-coded thing

the fading. time slipping away. change you can’t stop. a future that’s unclear — some people wait for it with hope, others are terrified of it

it’s just… i mean that’s literally him

and also — the way "the cherry orchard" hits even harder when you remember it was chekhov’s last play. he died a year after finishing it

so... yeah

my favorite russian artist dropped a new track for valentine’s day, and its cover has insane emmrook vibes for me, i'm so-

i can’t unsee it i can’t unfeel it

what if emmrich is a successful, well-known theatre director? mid-40s. tall, composed, going gray. always frowning a little. loose blazers, turtlenecks, thin metal glasses. and a habit of adjusting them whenever something isn’t right during rehearsals

what if rook is a young actor, fresh out of drama school? a bit naive, but stubborn. full of hope. they admire emmrich. dream of working with him. and when they somehow land a minor role in one of his productions… they can’t quite believe it

what if it starts formal. strictly professional. but slowly — bit by bit — it turns into something else?

emmrich is a perfectionist, obsessed with making everything in his productions flawless, and he spends a lot of time on rook. correcting them. guiding them. showing them how things should be done. but over time, the way he addresses them softens. hands adjusting their posture linger a second too long. his gaze, when he watches them on stage, stops being just professional. and conversations that once revolved around work slowly drift into something more personal

and all of this — surrounded by the backstage world of the theatre.

empty stage in the mornings. cramped dressing rooms that are always a mess. actors running on no sleep, drinking coffee in narrow hallways. sharp calls interrupting a scene because someone missed a line, someone didn’t make it believable enough. smoking out back in costume and makeup. memorizing lines at 2am

god damn this is so good it hurts

one of my original characters has a birthday in late november, so i thought it would be a good excuse to write a small story about him. and i even came up with three ideas

but

for the first one, i need to research a whole bunch of information about different flowers and how to take care of them

for the second one, i need to invent several stars and constellations for my setting — and a fairy tale that would help kids remember their names and positions in the sky

and the third one… that one doesn’t require anything special. but it’ll definitely be the longest, and i have neither the energy (autumn GAD flare-up ate all my internal resources) nor the time left before the character’s birthday.

pyrokinesis and “to heaven — only after you, to hell — only before you”

green apelsin and “i may be younger and only reach your shoulder, but i’m your most fearsome, ruinous storm in this world”

монеточка and “i smell like the fear of meeting your eyes, like years of searching for words and never saying them”

немного нервно and “you are always sitting at the foot of my bed — beautiful, but ghostly; ghostly, but alive”

элли на маковом поле and “my love has always cost me dearly — a knife pressed to my throat; not painful yet, but terrifying to breathe out”

things i hope to write when my mental state becomes a little more stable, and work becomes a little calmer:

a story about emmrook spending time by the sea in rivain

timeline: somewhere between the siege of weisshaupt and fire and ice, before the kiss in the memorial gardens context: the lords of fortune ask for help with the antaam. tian brings emmrich and harding. when it’s over, harding stays in the hall of valor, and tian invites emmrich for a walk before they return to the lighthouse. they stumble upon a tiny wild beach genres: slice of life, romance

i want it to be light and peaceful, “brief moment of calm in the middle of chaos” vibe

tian is fascinated by the unusual pebbles on the shore, and emmrich explains why some stones look the way they do (white stripes are cracks filled with mineral deposits; green traces come from algae; and so on). maybe they try to find a seashell together. by evening, the wind brings storm clouds from the sea, and sudden rain starts. tian and emmrich run for cover — maybe into some nearby ancient ruins. emmrich holds his cloak over their heads so they won’t get soaked (it doesn’t help). after hiding under an archway, they catch their breath and laugh

bonus #1: emmrich’s hair gets messy from running in the rain bonus #2: the archway is narrow, and tian gets flustered by how close they have to stand

a moment i can picture very vividly: tian finds a dark stone streaked with red. it reminds him of blight-veins in the hossberg wetlands. his expression tightens; he turns it in his hand for a few seconds — and then throws it far into the sea

a story about emmrook’s first autumn together in nevarra, when tian has a ptsd flare-up

timeline: post-canon, about a year after the ending of datv context: my headcanon is that after davrin’s death, solas’ two betrayals, the prison of regrets, varric’s death, and the final battle with elgar’nan and ghilan’nain, tian develops severe ptsd. he and emmrich move in together and start living in emmrich’s house in nevarra (my last fanfic was actually about that) genres: angst, hurt/comfort, slice of life, romance

this story is meant to be painful and raw, with the leitmotif that sometimes victory comes at too high a price, and sometimes a heroic act breaks the hero

autumn comes to nevarra with rain and fog — and brings anxiety, sorrow, panic attacks, intrusive memories, and dissociation into tian’s life. and flashbacks with no warning. sometimes, for no obvious reason, he suddenly feels as if he is still in the prison of regrets — and that emmrich, manfred, and his whole life in nevarra are just another illusion of the fade. tian starts having nightmares again and feels guilty toward emmrich for not being normal. guilty for falling apart.

emmrich helps him through it — steady arms during breakdowns, soft words during derealization, gentle presence instead of pressure. pain and tenderness, side by side

this whole idea came from one emmrich's line that hit me out of nowhere: “darling, you are looking at me as though you fear i might disappear” i imagined tian staring back at him — frightened, exhausted — then turning away without answering, because he is afraid. because part of him believes he might be losing his mind

i know that writing this fic would be both healing and damaging at the same time. i’m not sure i’m ready for it. but someday, i want to try

i’ve got a few more ideas floating around, but these two are the big ones. writing this post kinda made me see them from a new angle — and now i love them even more so yeah. i really, really hope i’ll actually get to make something out of them they deserve that much

and i often think about what kiss cutscenes with emmrich at the lighthouse could look like... i have a few favorite ideas

a kiss on emmrich’s balcony before kissing rook, emmrich wraps arm around their waist, pulls them closer, and brushes a fingertip along their cheek (i'm sorry, this gesture is my personal obsession — i genuinely believe nothing in the world could be more tender). there are endless softness in his eyes and endless care in the way he moves. warm daylight falls beautifully over them. they smile. and for those few seconds, nothing and no one else exists — just them

a kiss by the bookcase, in the staircase’s shadow emmrich presses rook back against the shelves — not roughly, but gently and carefully — resting one hand on the bookcase just above their head as he leans in. the falling shadow of the spiral staircase makes the whole scene feel very intimate. the only light comes from the fire behind him, golden and warm, outlining their faces. for a few heartbeats, they simply look into each other’s eyes, and it feels like the world has paused

a kiss at the writing desk rook comes up to emmrich while he’s writing something, bracing their hip against the edge of the desk beside him. he looks up from his papers, stands, and steps toward them. first, he kisses their hand — and only after rook arches their brow or gives him a meaningful little smirk, he slips an arm around their waist and leans in for their lips. at the end of the scene, as the screen begins to fade to black, rook settles onto the desk, emmrich leans in closer — and the kiss deepens