#millicent rue

You said in the notes of the original post --

I understand your skepticism, but considering that Theo worked with Lucita, a Lasombra, in Gehenna The Final Night, stranger things have happened. ;)

On one hand, I’m pretty sure there isn’t any penis throwing in that novel.

On the other... they live in the same city, and an outrageous distraction is probably the best distraction you can get. Like, it’s a penis. Everyone is going to want to look to see what the fuck is going on.

Theo Bell’s probably heard of the descendant of Sascha Vykos whose life dream is to throw a penis in Hardestadt’s face, just like her great-grandsire. It’s not common knowledge, but since the Sabbat used to have the city most people who live there have heard of her ambition, even if they don’t know the name of the Tzimisce who had it. She used to live there, maybe she never left. Tzimisce have Vicissitude, after all.

Nastasya poses as Laika Petrova, the Gangrel, these days. She’s seen Theo Bell around at Elysium from time to time, so she’s not surprised to see him there again one night. She’s surprised he’s walking towards her, but not alarmed.

Then he says, “I’ve heard you can get me in contact with Anastasia Sokolova.”

And Laika just side eyes him all, “The Tzimisce? Why would I have any connections to her?”

And he just looks at her.

And she sighs and is like, “FINE. Meet me at the Bow Bridge in Central Park at 3AM.”

So they meet. She does so in her regular Tzimisce form. She doesn’t bother taking precautions to protect herself; Bell isn’t the type to lure an enemy into an ambush when he could’ve just exposed her in plain sight. He doesn’t want her destroyed, she’s pretty sure.

Theo Bell is like, “I’ve heard you want to throw a penis at Hardestadt.”

Nastasya tries not to laugh her ass off, because “are you seriously telling me the Camarilla actually dispatched an Archon over penis throwing?”

“No,” says Theo. “Actually, I want a distraction. You want to pull a Vykos. There’s a conclave in Prague in three months. I can help you get in and make it happen. Let’s talk.”

Nastasya. Is. Delighted.

She doesn’t even ask questions. Just like Theo hoped she would.

And then this post happens:

Nastasya wakes up in the middle of the day. Proteans into the form of a rat. Makes a ghoul carry her in a light-proof box to her sire’s haven.

Shakes him awake. Holding him by the shoulders, eyes bloodshot, she gets right up in his face.

“We need to go to Prague.”

Her sire is, like, so done with Nastasya and her Vykos obsession, but he works hard to be a Good Sire even though she’s been released for a decade, so you know he’s letting himself get dragged there anyway.

Nastasya texts Sullivan’s ghoul. “We’re going to Prague to throw a penis in the face of Hardestadt, you in?”

And Sullivan just takes one look at it and is like “tell her I’ll have to track down Millicent and bring her, because she will never forgive me if she misses out on this.”

So Sullivan gets to work. He and Nastasya, as a favour to him, pull every string they have with the Nosferatu antitribu to track down Millicent. Sullivan finally finds her in a dive bar in Los Angeles, managing the blood trade there under the noses of Anarchs and Camarilla alike.

Sullivan just cuts straight to the chase all, “I’ve been looking for you for weeks! I got an offer I don’t think you’ll want to refuse.”

“You have an offer. Grammar.”

She ditches him as a fledgling when the Sabbat starts fracturing, they don’t see each other for years, that’s how they greet each other. Yeah,  the two of them are just Like That.

“You know Nastasya?” Sullivan tells her. “She’s a Tzimisce friend of mine in New York. She’s the great-grandchilde of Sascha Vykos.”

“What about her?”

“There’s a convention in Prague. Hardestadt will be there. Stasya wants to continue a family tradition. Wanna come?”

Millicent hears “great-grandchilde of Sascha Vykos”, “convention” and “family tradition” and just stops cleaning the glass (she’s at a bar, they’re always cleaning glasses with rags, saves on the water bill).

She stares at him.

She says, “It’s taken quite some time for me to carve out my own part of the blood trade here.”

“Yup,” says Sullivan.

Millicent doesn’t tell him to say yes, not yup. “It takes a lot of maintenance to prevent the competition from muscling in.”

“I’d expect so.”

“And you want me to drop everything and go to Europe to watch a Tzimisce with the maturity of a thirteen-year-old boy throw a lewd body part in the face of a founder of the Camarilla?”

“Yep!”

She stares at him.

Then she says, “Our elders are trying to get the clan into the Ivory Tower. If we’re going to do this, it’s now or never.”

“I knew you’d like it.”

-o-

Nastasya’s grandsire comes too. Having been subject to Sascha’s abuse personally, he often feels like Nastasya doesn’t take Vykos seriously enough, but he has to admit this would be pretty fucking funny so he tags along.

Theo Bell smuggles the ex-Sabbat in. The sires are all deeply amused that he’s helping, and when Millicent is the first person to have the brain cells to ask why, Nastasya tells her, “don’t look a gift Cammy in the mouth!”

Nastasya’s been practicing throwing penises ever since the plan was hatched. It is a bad-dragon esque penis, a foot long and thicker than a man’s forearm, and it’s prehensile and squirming.

She can’t just copy Vykos, she has to outdo them, you know. Put her own spin on the penis. If she ever meets them, she’ll say, “Mine was bigger!”

She waits for the time Theo Bell told her to. A time when the Ventrue are coming back from recess, but nobody’s suspicious the Brujah haven’t quite made it back yet. A time when the conclave hall isn’t too loud and everyone’s just murmuring to each other.

There’s a piercing whistle and a, “Hey, Hardestadt!” Everyone’s heads snap up.

And the penis is thrown. Thrown, but more like hurled. There’s Potence behind it. She wants that penis to hurt.

When everyone turns their heads to see where it comes from, Nastasya makes sure to yell, “Tradition, bitches! The Vykos bloodline sends its regards!"

(She’s spent weeks coming up with the words.)

It’s the best distraction Theo Bell could have hoped for. Even the most bored Kindred with glazed-over eyes is immediately snapping to attention to see the thing squirm its way up Hardestadt’s trouser leg from where it bounced off him and fell on the floor. Jan, who may or may not be in on the whole thing, is trying not to laugh.

There’s dead silence, then the Ventrue start yelling.

And then the ambush happens. The Brujah start cutting down Ventrue.

Hardestadt doesn’t realise what’s happened at first, because he’s trying to get the thing out of his shirt. So it’s pretty easy for Theo to blow his fucking head off.

-o-

Sullivan tells Millicent, “You know, when you said it was now or never, you weren’t fucking kidding.”

Millicent tells him off for cursing.

-o-

So, you know, fuck it.