After the tragic passing of her beloved Uncle Varric, Minrathous businesswoman Ayla Thorne has a Satinalia she'll never forget. Can she keep his beloved bakery, The Hanged Man, afloat and out of the evil clutches of Evanuris Inc.? And will she choose to return to her high-powered career in the city, or follow her heart to build a life with the handsome florist and single father next door?
The Emmrook Holiday Special | Making Spirits Bright
Part 1 of 3: The Village of Necropolis Welcomes You
A Nugflix Original Film
READY TO NUGFLIX & CHILL?!
👉 READ ON AO3! ❄️
Hey @2mercia2furious, remember when you said there should be a Hallmark AU Emmrook??...Well now there is!!
I BLAME YOU!!! 😅💕
This idea has had me in a chokehold ever since, so much so my sick brain churned out 15K+ words in 3 days...so ima release this silly little fic in 3 separate installments for you kiddos, and hopefully give y'all something fun and sweet to read during the holidays.
And unlike a real Hallmark movie, Part 2 has SMUT!!🔥No fading to black here, no sir.
Preview under the cut!
👉 Put on your holiday jammies on & read now!
NOW AVAILABLE! Read Part 2 here!
🎄 Making Spirits Bright Master Post: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
📚 Writing Master Post | Back to Library
Ayla turned off the highway, singing at the top of her lungs. She was sorry to miss drinks with Neve and Lucanis, but she was making great time considering the state of her shitty beat up VW Beetle. The sun had been setting when she passed the 'Welcome to Nevarra' sign hours ago, and she was finally driving through the outskirts of the small town where Varric lived.
Had lived.
She slowed down as she neared the entrance.
THE VILLAGE OF NECROPOLIS WELCOMES YOU
The #1 All Soul's Day Destination in Thedas!
POPULATION:
952 LIVING RESIDENTS.
642,0943,394 FRIENDLY SPIRITS & UNDEAD.
She chuckled. Ayla loved all Soul's Day, always had, but nowhere celebrated quite like Necropolis. The town pulled out all the stops for their celebrations, and their midnight spirit parade was famous throughout all of Thedas. She used to visit Varric for her favorite holiday every year when she was a kid, and the two of them always wore matching costumes.
She let out another laugh when she remembered the one year the two of them dressed up like nugs.
Dammit, she already missed him so much.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and she furiously wiped it away. She was never much of a crier, and she sure as shit wasn't about to start now.
It started to snow as she turned down main street. Although it was late and most places were closed, everything was festively lit up for Satinalia, quiet and quaint under the soft glow of the moon.
Most of the shops had been there forever, their familiar names bringing a smile to her face. The Dragon's Hoard pawnshop. Harding Masonry. Ingellvar Outfitters. Davrin's bar—The Aerie. But there were a few new ones she didn't recognize. Veiljumper Arcade. Headstone Bakery…
Damn. Another fucking bakery?! And right across the street, too.
The store right next to Varric's boasted a new sign as well: Shroud's Kiss Flowers. Huh. Guess the little cheese shop that was there before didn't make it. From what she could remember, the cheese had been good, but stupidly expensive.
Ayla found herself getting distracted by all of the beautiful floral displays in the window as she pulled up behind the Hanged Man to park. Most of the shops had living space above them, and the bakery was no exception. She cut the engine and stepped out into the cold, marveling at how peaceful it was compared to the bustling streets of Minrathous. The only sound she could hear was the gentle noise of falling snow, and the satisfying crunch it made under her boots as she grabbed her bags out of the trunk.
She leaned her head back and laughed, catching a few snowflakes on her tongue, when someone suddenly cleared their throat, cutting through the quiet.
"Excuse me, but would you happen to be Ayla?"
"Fuck!"
The words were softly spoken, but they startled her anyway, and she cursed when she dropped her bags in surprise, a tingle running down her spine at the sound. Ayla turned to find that the beautiful, velvety voice appeared to belong to an equally beautiful man.
"My apologies, dear. I didn't mean to sneak up on you—please, allow me."
A very tall, athletically built man emerged from the shadows, an otherwise imposing sight for a woman alone at this time of night, were it not for the concern crinkling his warm hazel eyes. He set down what appeared to be a flower of some sort to free his hands before hurrying over.
Ah.
The flower, along with the adorable little green apron he was wearing, must mean he was the florist from next door. He looked to be a fair bit older than her, at least judging by his perfectly styled salt-and-pepper hair and matching mustache, both slowly gathering snowflakes as he leaned down to help pick up her things.
Maker have mercy. You could bounce a coin off that ass.
To her dismay, one of her hastily packed bags had spilled open, and the two of them set about gathering up her clothes from the snow. Ayla blushed when she spied one of her bras, and watched a bit of color rise to the man's striking cheekbones when he clocked the delicate blue lace himself before she could hurriedly snatch it up out of sight.
He pulled himself back up to his full height and extended a large and surprisingly warm hand to help her to her feet, leaving her uncharacteristically speechless as she lost herself in those kind, gorgeous eyes.
Dammit. She was probably still blushing. The florist gave her a sly little smile, but if he noticed, he certainly didn't comment on it.
"Ayla, I presume?"
"That's me," she said, nodding. She had to tilt her head back to properly look at him when she spoke. Maker, he was tall.
His reply was adorably old-fashioned. "Charmed."
👉 Read the rest on AO3!
🎄 Making Spirits Bright Master Post: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
📚 Writing Master Post | Back to Library
Gentle absolutely ZERO-pressure tags for some folks I think might get a kick out of this, as well as those of you I already gave hints or spilled the beans to! 💕
Buckle up for the dramatic finale of this year's Nugflix holiday special!
With the Winter Bazaar upon them, and the threat from Ayla's shitty boss, Solas, still ringing in her ears, will our intrepid businesswoman and her gorgeous florist be able to keep Uncle Varric's bakery out of the clutches of Evanuris Inc.? And what will happen to the two lovebirds when Ayla has to go back to her high-powered career in Minrathous? Find out in tonight's thrilling conclusion of Making Spirits Bright!
Emmrook Holiday Special | Making Spirits Bright
Part 3 of 3: Happy Satinalia, Ya Filthy Nugs
A Nugflix Original Film
❄️NUGFLIX & CHILL❄️
READ THE FINALE ON AO3!
PART 3 AKA THE FINALE IS HERE, AND MAKER HAVE MERCY, IT'S JAM PACKED FULL OF:
🍿 More adorable Emmrook romcom tropes
❄️ The Winter Bazaar
🥚 A final show down with the Evil Egg
🌟 Multiple canon & a few OC guest stars
💀 EVEN MORE MANFRED
🎥 PLUS a classic romcom-style epilogue!
You can read the finale here & catch a sneak peek under the cut!
🎄 Making Spirits Bright: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
📚 Writing Master Post | Back to Library
After saying her hellos to The Aerie's friendly barstaff and making sure Davrin had everything he needed for the bazaar, she eyed the chalkboard Antoine was setting up in front of their stall.
"Oh, yum! I was hoping someone would have hot chocolate!"
Davrin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Lucanis refused to sell it."
"What the heck are 'Satinalia Nachos'?" she asked.
"Geez, Ayla, I dunno—they're nachos we're selling for Satinalia," Davrin quipped, chuckling. "Get your head outta your ass."
"Mais non! I'm also putting chopped jalapeños and tomatoes on top!" Antoine argued, shoving a basket of them under her face. She looked at the red and green bits he had sprinkled onto them and snickered.
"Damn, Antoine—you're right! They're festive as hell."
She snagged a hot chocolate before she left, very much ignoring Davrin's protestations, and was almost back at the bakery when Emmrich caught her eye.
Ayla damn near dropped her hot chocolate at the sight of him in his adorable little green peacoat and matching tweed scarf, waving those gorgeous hands of his around the booth for Shroud's Kiss Flowers.
The entire thing resembled a meadow in spring as hundreds of beautiful snow white moonblossoms appeared all over it, slowly unfurling and releasing their intoxicating fragrance into the chilly air. She sighed when she watched him pluck one and place it in Manfred's hair, the sweet thing giggling all the while.
Emmrich's face lit up when he spotted Ayla, and he gestured for her to join them. "Hiya, Em. Hey there, Manfred," she said, giving them both what had now become her customary greeting of a kiss on the cheek.
"Hello again, darling," he murmured, kissing her before promptly conjuring up another moonblossom in mid air and tucking it behind her ear. "A beautiful flower for my own beautiful little flower."
Ayla practically died on the spot.
She took in the vases of meticulously arranged white poinsettias and moonblossoms, and let out a long whistle. "Maker, Em—when did you find the time to do all of this?!" She let out an embarrassed laugh. "I've been monopolizing so much of your time, I was worried you might not even have a booth, to be honest."
"Oh, you've certainly kept me busy, but I've made do. Grabbing a few hours to work here and there." He gave her a cheeky smirk. "And you can certainly monopolize me any time you'd like, dear."
Ayla narrowed her eyes and sipped her hot chocolate, sizing him up. "Mm, I think I will," she murmured with a wink.
Emmrich returned it. "I'll hold you to that."
She spent the rest of the morning bustling around main street helping everyone with their booths, and by the time she got back to her own, it had been festively decorated within an inch of its life by the industrious Bellara, who bashfully demurred at Ayla's praise.
Looking around the inviting street, now all Satinalia-fied and covered in glittering snow, full of ridiculously cheerful friends and neighbors, Ayla felt a proud smile creep across her face.
Damn…maybe they could actually pull this off.
❄️ Read the entire finale here!
🎄 Making Spirits Bright Master Post: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
📚 Writing Master Post | Back to Library
While Professor Emmrich Volkarin was instantly captivated by her charms, he couldn’t pinpoint the precise moment he became completely and utterly besotted with Warden Rook Thorne. All he knew was that his feelings for her were a bit like the first time he connected with the Fade as a boy.
While logically, it stands to reason that there was once a time where he existed without it, the sensation was now so entwined with his very soul that it was quite frankly impossible to remember.
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Grave Mist
2025 ⋆ TV-R ⋆ Supernatural Romance
Tidiness. Order. Control.
Remove Myrna's title, the decades of tireless scholarly pursuits, the various awards and achievements she could already lay claim to at less than forty years of age—even her flesh, when it was eventually stripped away from the pearly white of her mortal remains—these three qualities would still be found within the very marrow of her bones.
...Which might explain why her recent, very peculiar, and most inappropriate thoughts about a respected and long-time colleague had her so rattled.
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★ CREDITS ★
Over the past week I've been completely & utterly possessed by this damn Hallmark AU demon & somehow wrote 24,379 words in 8 DAYS! And you bet your ASS I couldn't have done it without all of y'all! 😈
Once again, a huge HUGE thank you to @2mercia2furious for planting this holiday-spiced idea into my brain! 🎄
Big shout out to sweet @guacamolleee for serving as my Satinalia Lore Queen, dropping ALL the knowledge + waxing poetic with me (pun intended) about Thedas' poor, often overlooked moon...even by DATV's own devs lmao. 👑🌔
Thank you to @vishantikaffar & @davrinsleftpectoral for reasons that may become apparent when you read this chapter. 💕🫶
Big hugs & sloppy nug kisses to @onelooseskull, @serialsforbellara, @hedwigoprah, @sunny374940, @redaresss, & @introvertedfangrl for all of your behind-the-scenes support & helping me through my Hallmark AU demon possession over the past week. 🥲❄️
And finally, since this has basically turned into my end-of-year wrap up post, I also want to give a BIG BIG thank you to all of y'all below for sharing the love for this little crackfic / any of my writing / with me on here or AO3 in any way! Reading, likes, reblogs, sweet comments, tag games ALL OF IT!! When I see y'all's names it makes me smile, and I wanted to make sure you knew that. 🥰
Please forgive me if I've left anyone out, I tried v hard to grab y'all!! This possession has been a wild ride and my brain has damn near cracked in half lmao. Just know that if you interact with literally anything I do, I SEE U & ILYSM!! 💕🫶
When I wrote that Ayla had been white-knuckling it to the holidays in Chapter 1 of this fic, that was 100% a self-insert, this year has KICKED MY ASS and letting Rook crashout in the walk-in multiple times healed something in my soul. 🥲😂
But, like with most things (MOST lmao), it's not all bad. This year has also included my first dip into writing creatively for myself EVER. I've now written over 100k words since early August when I wrote my very first Emmrook post that eventually became Ch. 1 of my long fic!!
And while the writing definitely helped, it was all of y'all & this beautiful fandom of lovely little weirdos that has kept me (relatively) sane. It's fucking WILD to me that some of y'all tagged above have been reading my bullshit from the very start, & I might still have nooo idea what I'm doing, but I'm damn glad to be in this little corner of the internet with y'all.
SO THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU from the bottom of my little unhinged goblin heart.
TLDR; I love y'all more than Ayla loves Emmrich's gorgeous forearms (and that's REALLY saying something!!) ❄️🫶💕😘
Have a wonderful holiday season & Happy New Year!
🎄 Making Spirits Bright Master Post
📚 Writing Master Post | Back to Library
playing In Hushed Whispers as Malcolm is making me sad bc Im thinking of how fucked up Varric must've been after he watched his best friend's son die right in front of him, then become imprisoned with the thing he hates the most, with no way of telling Hawke his son is dead
