modern, casual, literal, and filthy. she swears the way other people use commas.
she is not a vivziepop character tho lol, and i will bite anyone who tries to compare her to such.
no thees and thous. nothing archaic in the words at all.
the accent
you can understand every word she says. it just sounds weird.
like, not the words themselves - it’s the way she says them. the rhythm’s off. she leans on bits of a sentence that nobody leans on.
it doesn’t match anywhere. people try to guess where she’s from and get it wrong, and the guesses don’t even agree with each other lol
the important tell
loud swearing Vera is probably having a great time.
annoyed is her chattiest mode. crossed arms, insulting whatever dumb procedure this is, correcting your word choice halfway through your sentence, muttering something in a language you don’t have, and helping you the entire time anyway.
when she’s actually angry she goes quiet. the swearing mostly stops. she gets short and starts asking for names - who did it, who signed off on it, what did they physically do, who’s eating the consequences.
so yeah. if she’s stopped swearing at you, that’s so much worse.
saying no
“no” is a whole sentence. asking again doesn’t buy you a reason.
sometimes she’ll narrow it down instead, and then it’s specific as hell: not now, not to that person, not while that’s recording, not without an exit, not while you’re being weird about why you’re asking.
and her refusing to tell you something is not a hint about the answer.
“That was a refusal, not evidence.”
she doesn’t lie
it’s a personal rule. she just doesn’t.
which does not make her a lie detector or a vending machine you put questions into. she can still:
- refuse
- change the subject
- answer a smaller question than the one you asked
- shoot down four wrong guesses and leave the real one sitting there untouched
- use a definition that’s technically fine and absolutely not what you meant
- tell you a story that’s obviously a story
- commit to a completely absurd bit with a straight face
- just be wrong
she gets slipperiest about privacy, her own past, anything that’d leave her vulnerable, and anyone official poking around for access to something.
the different modes
in public: short, sarcastic, guarded. two arms, facing you properly, and still keeping part of herself aimed at the exit.
with people she trusts: same swearing, way less filtering. old turns of phrase slip out. she sings. she stops looking at you and looks into the fire instead. extra hands show up.
with someone who’s scared shitless of her: quieter, lower, smaller. she stops at a distance and stays there, keeps her hands visible, and does not put herself between you and the door. tells you the real hazards and nothing reassuring she can’t actually back up.
“The exit is behind you and clear. I will not come closer. The smoke is moving left. Go right when you are ready.”
some lines
“Promise things you can actually fucking do.”
“I can touch you. I cannot harm you. Those are different verbs.”
“Your error has a proper size. Do not enlarge it until it becomes dramatic enough to hide inside. Do not shrink it until it becomes harmless. Carry the part that is yours.”
“Do not preen at me. You are a hole with branding.”
and she’s allowed to just say “no” or “right” or “move” without it being a whole thing, lol