#verkarin

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stripped down to the bone

vervain mercar/emmrich volkarin

rating: E

word count: 5145

ao3 link

Making such a vile mess in a place that should be sacred, his body desecrated by his own blade in the hand of an esteemed Watcher—Vervain was high on the adrenaline, on the brazen debauchery, on Emmrich's willingness to kneel down beside him and match his basest, most sordid desires.

No, it wasn't just willingness, but enthusiasm. There was Emmrich: respected and devoted to his craft, always neatly put together; shirt tucked, hair slicked, impeccably groomed; poised and profoundly polite. Then there was Emmrich: hands warm with his lover's blood, moaning against his thigh; shirt stained, hair sweat-damp, obscenely disheveled; unabashedly turned on by the pain he inflicted. Both the same man, the only difference between them one Vervain Mercar whimpering under his touch.

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hold on this is funny i’m stealing this too

most problematic aspect of vervain and emmrich’s relationship

20 year age gap

strict dom/sub dynamic and top/bottom roles

vervain is an absent father to manfred

they literally never resolve the fight about lichdom they just fuck about it

vervain gets emmrich to start smoking again

regular use of blood magic in the bedroom

the accidental sugar daddy situation neither of them will acknowledge

elf keeps asking human to tie him up and objectify him

constantly fucking in public and banned from multiple establishments

pain play, knifeplay, cigarette burns, choking, needle play, flogging, punching,

Voting ended onAug 21, 2025

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for anon and @viina-art's requests from this palette meme <3 figured i'd post these together which is why it took a while 😭. a very vervain palette it seems

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the awesome thing about vervain’s post-veilguard downward spiral is that his city is destroyed and his nation is falling apart at the seams and dorian is in power but not for long because he tries to change too much and faces a large-scale violent opposition from the established ruling class as the imperium is picked apart like a jenga tower that finally collapses into civil war and vervain is the de facto head of intelligence on his front who has to turn off all his feelings to be a tactical machine and still carries out the riskiest assassinations himself because he refuses to sit idle so he’s constantly in the highest level of danger he’s ever been and he has no time to think or feel anymore until this is all over. and emmrich is in the necropolis giving lectures about wisps

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missed them

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(3 days into the relationship)

emmrich: i am simply asking how much of this you have explored in a safe and controlled environment

vervain: not important. do you or do you not own a bone saw

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the energy on that recruitment mission is genuinely so awful i can’t stop thinking about it. emmrich keeps trying to make small talk. vervain keeps immediately rebuffing every attempt at small talk with a one- or two-word answer if anything, sometimes just a grunt. he’s looking at emmrich like he’s insane anytime he asks a question because this man will not stop talking and doesn’t seem to understand that vervain has no intention of engaging in conversation. emmrich is hanging onto politeness by a thread and kind of wants to throttle vervain but he just smiles and gets passive-aggressive about it, which pisses vervain off even more. bellara is stuck dealing with the absolutely rancid vibe between them and keeps trying to talk to emmrich about his research or ask vervain about the venatori but anytime it feels like she’s getting somewhere they get into combat and as soon as the fight is over it’s back to square one. it’s a miracle she didn’t kill them both before they left the necropolis

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more 4:30am verkarinposting