Rook regresses fic idea. Would have thought I'd have more Origins timeframe fic ideas, but my Rookanis brainrot continues. Long rambling under the cut. This was written on and off over the course of six hours so excuse how disjointed.
Sometimes I jot notes, sometimes I write scenes as like, a visualizer, so here is some of it from Lucanis' POV
One morning, Rook was different. Lucanis had finished breakfast and was coming out of the dining hall to let the stragglers know when Rook suddenly explored out into the courtyard. She was panting, her hair was a mess, and she was still in her sleeping clothes. Lucanis was still far, but Bellara ran back to her to ask if everything was okay.
Rook grabbed her and pulled her into a tight bear hug, sobbing loudly enough that Harding came running too.
Lucanis reached them as Rook wrapped an arm around Harding’s neck and pulled her into the embrace as well. Both looked shocked, but they patted Rook’s back, asking again what happened. Lucanis stood on the side, just as worried. He looked Rook over for any signs up injuries that may be causing her distress.
“Sorry,” Rook gave Bellara and Harding one last squeeze before releasing them. Her hands shook visibly as she wiped at her face. “Had the worst dream, felt like years.”
Her eyes fell on Lucanis and for a moment her bottom lip trembled, but she mustered a sheepish smile. “Just glad to be awake, you know?”
Lucanis wasn’t sure he’d ever had a nightmare so terrible that he’d woken up in such a state, but he nodded. “Breakfast will help.”
“Always does,” Rook pushed her hair off her face and looked down at herself. “Maybe I should put some pants on?”
Bellara insisted on going with Rook to get dressed, but Harding followed Lucanis back to the dining hall where Neve was already waiting.
“That was…concerning,” Harding muttered. “I’ve never seen her like that before.”
Lucanis hummed. He hadn’t known Rook for nearly as long, but considering the circumstances in which they’d found themselves, he definitely considered Rook to be steadfast and resilient. One had to wonder what nightmare would reduce her to tears. She’d just gone to meet with the First Warden the day before, and he’d tried to arrest her, perhaps it had to do with that.
When Rook and Bellara made it to breakfast, Rook was cleaned up and looked completely normal.
“I heard you had a bad dream,” said Neve. “Everything alright?”
“All good, but I could use some coffee.”
Harding frowned but didn’t say anything to that. Lucanis poured a cup and brought it to Rook. “I didn’t know you drank coffee.”
“You like it,” Rook grinned. “Maybe I want to see what I’m missing.”
She didn’t take the tentative sip of something trying something for the first time. She drained the cup and stepped around Lucanis to get more.
“So,” Rook started when she returned to the table, “what’s on the agenda?”
Rook seemed to go back to…normal, Lucanis supposed. Spite said that she smelled the same, and he didn’t see any spirits around her. The only time her strangeness emerged was in the Crossroads.
All of them had gone through before, clearing out Venatori, Antaam, and blight to make way for the spirits. Rook had never been so sure-footed following the twisting paths. It was as if she knew exactly where to go when they were searching camps and taking down traps.
He wasn’t the only one to give her curious looks, but no one said anything. Rook answered every question that was directed at her, and didn’t seem to be trying to distance herself. On the contrary, she seemed to pay more attention to each of them than ever.
They were clearing a Venatori camp when Rook suddenly paused, before walking purposefully toward a wall.
Lucanis followed her quickly. “Did you spot something?”
“Kind of,” Rook smiled at him. She’d always been friendly, but the open affection on her face when she looked at him was confusing. “Couldn’t help but notice most of the structures they slapped up are made of cheap wood. Do you think they decided to build a whole stone wall for fun?”
“Something. Hidden!” Spite darted ahead as far as he was able. “Old.”
So anyways, Rook was way too stressed during the events of the game to actually form very close relationships. She was fond of them, and had feelings for Lucanis, but never acted on it.
She chose to save Minrathous, and her relationship with Lucanis never recovered. She was heartbroken when he eventually formed a romantic connection with Neve but kept it to herself.
Harding gave her life to help kill Ghilan'nain, and Bellara was kidnapped by Elgar'nan. Later, she slowly succumbed to the blight, but not before growing much closer to Davrin (and Rook, who ended up playing third wheel to their infatuation.)
Even with the Evanuris dead and Solas trapped in the Fade, the world remained in chaos. The Chantry's Exalted March on the elves could not be stopped, even by the Inquisitor and the recently deposed Divine Victoria. It had seemed to happen so suddenly that Rook couldn't help but wonder if it had been in the works long before the Dread Wolf's sabotaged ritual.
The Eluvian network had returned to its original function of transporting elves, who were fleeing from death and destruction. After Bellara's death from the blight, Rook and Davrin worked with the Veil Jumpers to continue the evacuation.
Five years after the Fall of Elgar'nan, the Veilguard had essentially scattered to the wings. Bellara and Harding were gone, one quickly, the other slowly. Neve had returned to her busy life with the Shadow Dragons in Minrathous, She at least tried to keep in touch, and so did Emmrich, who had returned to Nevarra to join the lich. Taash had followed Lucanis to Treviso at first--ready to begin work as a fledgling. They were unsurprisingly ill-suited to the more structured hierarchy of the Crows. It took two months for them to return to Rivain.
As for Lucanis... Rook remembered when Bellara told her and Davrin that Lucanis and Neve were 'dating'. It hadn't been truly surprising; Rook had hummed like her heart hadn't been ripped out. Davrin snorted that he was so sure it would last.
It hadn't. Mere days after Solas was tricked into tying his life to the Veil, those who survived reconvened at the Lighthouse to gather their things. Neve and Lucanis each expected the other to relocate. Both had too much happening to do so. Rook hadn't been privy to the siutuation but Davrin had filled her in. They resolved to return to their own city and make it work.
As Davrin told to: they made it work for three weeks before going their separate ways.
Maybe if the Exalted March hadn't happened, maybe if the continent was less destroyed by the Blight, maybe if Rook knew how to be a better friend and leader, maybe it would have been different.
To be clear, that is not hate for the pairing of Lucanis and Neve, I'm just a toxic bitch that looooves unrequited pain. Five years later, Rook isn't in contact with any of them except Davrin. She got to know Ellana a little better too, on account of helping the elves.
She never went back to her life in Rivain, it was an old life that she knew she'd changed too much to fit back into. Sort of a micro-level "I Can Never Go Home" thing, that Solas experiences that gives her more grace for him upon going back.
Rook reaches the conclusion that maybe Solas wasn't necessarily wrong. She hadn't even joined the cause because she felt very strongly about it, in the beginning. She's just needed somewhere to go and some way to make money, and the Inquisition wanted her skills.
Rook is mostly along these days, thin, scarred, exhausted. The time has taken a toll on her, and it shows.
She is somewhere in the Fade, searching for more eluvians near the West side of the Frostback Mountains, when she finds some Venatori. There's in a cave of what almost looks like green lyrium. She has been stabbed through the gut and collapses on the ground, her blood covering the inscriptions they had painted on the ground. She is sure that she dies, but then she wakes up again in the Lighthouse. Aaaand she's in the past. This is after recruiting Lucanis but before recruiting Davrin.
Rook isn't sure if this is the hallucinations of a dying person or what, but she's willing to go along with it, and make choices based on her memories of this time. While she's at it, she decides to try and get closer with the rest of her teammates; maybe if she's better this time, they can all be happier.
I don't think she consciously goes after Lucanis, more tries to help him make more peace with himself so he can make his relationships work, whomever he has them with. Because she had strong feelings for him, and they come back with a vengeance upon being with him again, but Rook's goal is to be his friend, and make sure he has the chance to be happy.
In the future, she's positive he hates her. She'd met with him twice in the year after the events of Veilguard, and only heard from him once after that before traveling back. He hates being the First Talon, but he's taken the mantle and tried to continue rebuilding Treviso. The Crows took no real stance on the elves outside of their organization, but they did not cooperate with the Exalted March.
Uhhh that's all I have for now.
