Ridiculously early in the morning will be my time for romance posting instead of NSFW posting here we go
Veric has a number of ways in which he tends to show his affection through letting people into his ‘spaces’ —he’s a private person in general, so coming into his home, or being told specific things about his life or past, sure. But... probably the biggest, I think, is when you see him without any kind of glamours, or makeup, or obscuring who or what he really is, in a sense.
Sure, appearance is kind of important in most mage societies and arcane scientists aren’t that different in the end, even though they like to believe they’re more about the pursuit of knowledge than anything so superficial. But for Veric specifically, it’s because... he’s known for the image of strength he presents, and how frail and lifeless he can look at times when he’s overexerted himself and not using glamours to obscure it can be a startling contrast. His skin goes pale, he looks sickly, even his hair and eyes lose their luster and he gets a little more sluggish, a little more irritable than he already was (sounds hard to do, I know lol) not to mention he usually doesn’t wear his prostheses just because it takes less energy to simply use his wheelchair when he’s feeling that way, since he won’t be leaving his home in that state.
So if he willingly allows you to see him that way? I don’t think there’s a more grand show of trust from him, if I’m honest. He doesn’t like being vulnerable when it can be helped, so many of his formative years were spent learning to hide any and all signs of weakness so that he can survive.
