#verelena

[howdoyoufeeldcmkships]

Miyano Elena x Vermouth

Art credits to @/conan486923 on X, or linked here!

How do you feel about this DCMK ship?

This ship is one of my favourites!

I like this ship / I think it's interesting

I feel neutral about this ship

This ship is a NOTP for me

Voting ended onApr 28

[tangentiallly]

oh wow ……… elena vermouth ………….. oh my god ………

[blaquidow]

Hey, gay sex website, I drew gay sex

uncropped ver is over on my ghost town of a bsky

[tangentiallly]

i usually found vermouth's continuing pursuit of haibara and trying to haunt her down and kill her, something she explained as because she hates the research sherry and her mother did - a bit odd. the explanation's unsatisfactory for me because shiho already left, and is now unable to continue the research, and she had years she could easily kill her when sherry was still working on aptx, but she tries to kill her for doing aptx research when shiho can no longer do that? while i suppose it's harder to kill someone under the boss's eyes, a star scientist at that, while killing a traitor is something that one can easily achieve without incurring the boss's wrath, i still think vermouth's not telling the truth when she said that's the reason.

at least, it's not the only reason, to me.

for a while i was thinking it was because that they're both raised in the organization, and shiho managed to do something that vermouth wanted but never considered possible - escape from the organization, getting free. and didn't die in the process. it's unthinkable to her, and she's bitterly jealous.

now, this is still my headcanon for them, except now i thought about it more i'm thinking that vermouth is angry that shiho escaped (and vermouth herself cannot), it's not just because shiho escaped from the organization. it's also because shiho escaped the consequences of elena's actions (growing up and forced to work in the organization and continue her parents' research) while vermouth herself cannot (even if vermouth manage to leave the organization and hide away from the boss using various resources and her own disguise skills, she cannot escape the marks left by the drug she took, her body is frozen in this current state and this is something she cannot escape, no matter where she goes.) vermouth herself cannot escape the consequences of elena's actions, it's almost two decades after elena's death and she's still trapped, and she might be the only person trapped by that - with the one exception, elena's daughters. at least she still has them to suffer with her. akemi tried to escape and gin killed her. shiho tried to kill herself and survived.

and vermouth is the only one left, still here. trapped as always. because for shiho the consequences of her mother's actions is her having to grow up in the organization, but for vermouth it's her own body. both impossible to escape, at least in vermouth's mind - until shiho proved her wrong. my lover, your mother, the chains around our necks. neither of us was supposed to get free. but you did so i'm going to kill you.

[tangentiallly]

thinking about elena and vermouth again, forever remaining young feels like a dream to some people but for vermouth it’s a curse she’s living in a nightmare she cannot escape she’s frozen in time her body is frozen in time she hasn’t aged in two decades she sees her own face in the mirror it’s the same face everyday and she cannot forget elena no longer how long it’s been since elena’s death because she doesn’t even need something else to remind her of elena because her own self is the biggest reminder. she puts on disguises to pretend to be other people for missions for work for acting but most importantly to escape her own image to see someone other than her unchanging perfect face in the mirror, the most successful of elena’s experiments. but at the end of the day those disguises are temporary and only her own body is forever and she’s still trapped. you can get out of this party dress but you can’t get out of this skin!!!!

[tangentiallly]

vermouth pretending to be dr araide and sometimes using the knowledge she’s acquired from hanging out with elena at the lab almost two decades ago and then remembering her and looking at herself in a mirror with the doctor’s coat before she put the disguise on and thinking about elena again. thinking of how she’s doing all this to capture elena’s daughter who ran away from the organization, elena’s daughter who grew up in the organization like vermouth did but managing to escape from it something vermouth never thought possible. she shoves down her emotions and practice her charming and easygoing smile in the mirror. and thinks about the angel who never once smiled at her

[tangentiallly]

the way that shiho and shinichi are only a year apart is very significant to me for some very specific reasons.

mainly. the time frame when their mothers first met vermouth.

so shiho’s parents died shortly after she was born, and they had joined the organization a little before she was born, so that would be make the time vermouth and elena knew each other roughly something 17-19 years ago. could be narrower. yukiko married yusaku 17 years ago and had shinichi, and also quit acting - she and vermouth met before that and also studied disguises together, so that would also be over 17 years ago. so that’s also roughly the same time. before yukiko got married. what i want to say was i think sharon vineyard possibly had something going on with both of them at the same time, or subsequently. and it would make sense to me. because they are so different. the worlds vermouth interacted with them in are also so different. with yukiko (young and innocent and cheerful and enthusiastic and warm) it was a world outside of the organization. a brighter side to things. a welcomed distraction. a light in the darkness. with elena (hell angel, scientist doing experiment that vermouth had to suffer the consequences of, quiet and reserved - cold, even, especially towards org members) it was vermouth’s nightmare. she might be hell angel but they’re both in hell anyway, to vermouth. it’s also her job, her duty, her whole life, her cage. she’s trapped in and couldn’t leave no matter how much freedom the boss allowed her to have.

its very very different and also why one experience is sort of a salvation from the other.

[tangentiallly]

vermouth who uses her body as a weapon like any other weapon of hers. vermouth knows how people view her, knows their attraction and their lust and their desire, knows how to perform for the audience’s gaze and fantasy and uses that to her advantage, to get what she wants, and in her line of work that often means an opening for an attack, for her or her mission partner to kill that person. she knows the art of never giving too much, always out of reach, how to make people covet her by never giving them what they want, only barely teasing at it. nudity is the fantasy they want to reach and she does not give them that, she hints at it and teases at it and never gives them that. strategically revealing what she decides to.

her body is a weapon, a covetable prize that no one will get. she wields it expertly like any other weapon she has.

but in the lab it’s different, her body no longer feels like something she wields expertly, something she uses to tease and lure. here she is a test object and the value her body brings in the value in hell angel’s experiments and hell angel does not look at her like a prize. to elena, there is some bigger prize on the horizon, her ambitions her dreams her goals in science. here vermouth feels vulnerable even if other people have looked at her more hungrily. but she knows how to deal with those, uses that to her advantage and turn it all around. tease and never give. pretend and lure and deal the fatal blow.

here she is not her own weapon, but someone else’s test subject. here in the lab she feels exposed even if she’s technically been more exposed. but not like this, never like this, she was always on her own terms. she feels raw and for the first time in forever, scared. the boss’s words ring in her head. the promises of immortality as a gift. she wonders what immortality is really like. would it really be how the boss dreams of it?

elena looks at her, clinical eyes with barest hints of pity. vermouth feels exposed and uncomfortable and out of control and because she only ever knows how to use her body as a weapon, she grabs on elena’s lab coat and pulls her close and then kisses her.

hell angel, for her part, does not react.