#Amicia de laCroix

[nightingaletrash]

new way to piss off Amicia: call her restaurant 'The L'Étoile Rouge'

because L'Étoile Rouge means The Red Star, adding 'the' in front of it is redundant, and saying it is a way to immediately earn yourself a spot on her list of people she wants to kill.

Sullivan and Evie do it on purpose.

[robotslenderman]

Out of curiosity, what were Sullivan’s, Amicia’s, and Kara’s backstories? Specifically their time with the Sabbat. Were they any of the ones listed out in the Night Road game or were they original?

... Sorry anon, bad news, but the question you've asked has an answer which is actually a bit complicated.

(Okay it's not REALLY, but you got me talking and I talked far more than you probably actually WANTED. SORRY NOT SORRY)

So basically you gotta keep something in mind: Amicia and Kara were made by @nightingaletrash, and Sullivan is mine. They are all the childer of Millicent Rue, much like the canonical Lasombra courier from Night Road. They were all shovelheads, and after two years and her third surviving fledgling Millicent went "fuck it, I have three kids now, I'm never doing this again." After Millicent basically ditched the three of them, to survive, Kara went into working with artefacts, and Amicia and Sullivan became couriers. Kara would eventually be reunited with her biological daughter, who's a Ravnos named Evie (who you've probably seen me talk about -- Sullivan dotes on her), and at some point Amicia moved to Seattle, started a blood den, and became sexually and later romantically involved with Prince Cross.

That's where the simple bit ends.

In reality it's actually a bit complicated past that because of a few things.

Biggest thing: @nightingaletrash and I both have our own separate continuities. For the most part, 95% of what we talk about happens in both, but I essentially have a copy pasted version of Sullivan running around in her head, and she has one of her lot running around in mine.

The biggest differences in our separate universes are these:

In @nightingaletrash's continuity, Evie was the canon VTMB fledgling and Amicia was the canon VTMNR courier.

In Maddyverse (my continuity), Madeline (thus the name) was the canon VTMB fledgling, and my canon VTMNR courier was someone entirely separate called Elisa Mulgrew, my Gangrel, who is Lettow Kaminsky's childe.

So because of that there's minor differences in backstories. For example, I can't quite remember what Evie's backstory is in Maddyverse, where she's not the Fledgling (I have it somewhere!), but obviously she didn't have to deal with all the bullshit the Fledgling did so while she's still independent she's probably less anti-Sect than she is in @nightingaletrash's continuity. And in @nightingaletrash's continuity, Amicia was the canon VTMNR courier, so in her universe Amicia would've had more money sooner and therefore would've met Prince Cross and become influential over there a lot faster than she would have in Maddyverse.

We don't actually talk about the differences much, we just talk about what each universe has in common and if I've had to I just slightly adapt it in my head to fit Maddyverse, and I've always assumed she did the same thing for hers. I've never asked her her explicit thoughts on it but the way I see it, her version of Sullivan is just a duplicate copy that she can do whatever she wants to because my Sullivan is over here in my head, hers is an AU version of mine. She can do whatever she wants to her version of Sullivan because it doesn't have any effect on my (Maddy)version of Sullivan.

I don't do whatever I want with Kara or Amicia though because we've never actually explicitly discussed this and I don't want to be disrespectful of her ownership of her characters, as I know my interpretation is pretty laissez-faire compared to how most people feel about other people playing with their OCs. In any case, both universes have so much in common it's never had to come up, because they're all Millicent's childer, Amicia always ends up in Seattle, Sullivan always ends up working for Amicia -- the only thing that really changes between our heads is when it happens and what Amicia was up to and what Evie's backstory is.

(Am dying to know what Elisa'd probably be up to in her universe, though -- she'd have never diablerised Aila, and presumably wasn't able to come back to Tucson in 2019 because Lettow explicitly requested her as courier just so he could have his estranged childe close by to keep an eye on her. If Elisa was working in Tucson at the time, she'd have been given all the assignments, not Amicia, so there's no universe where Amicia is the VTMNR courier where Elisa could have been present. And given the Tucson court went tits up in @nightingaletrash's universe when Amicia betrayed them to the SI, either Lettow was destroyed before he could ever be reconciled with Elisa, or he went on the Beckoning before they were ever reunited. Which makes me really sad to think about because Elisa was struggling, and VTMNR was when the hardest part of her life as a vampire was finally put behind her. SO THAT GIVES ME THE SADS. Damn, now I've got a plotbunny biting...)

But if we look at their Doylian backstory it gets even more complicated lmao.

Because like. as a character. Sullivan actually started off as an AU version of another character.

(and feel free to tune out at this point because I realise this actually has nothing to do with your actual question of his IN-UNIVERSE backstory, AT ALL, lmao, sorry, it's more his out-of-universe backstory)

So. Maddyverse is Maddyverse because the fledgling is Madeline Jones, my first ever vampire OC. She had an identical twin sister called Meredith. Meredith went on to marry a Welsh trans man named Jonathan Grey and opened a pharmacy in Seattle. Here's a picture I made of him with Artbreeder before everyone realised how fucked up using AI was:

Meredith was walking home in December 2019 when she got involved in the mass Embrace. She is my canonical VTMB2 main character, although that may change by the time it finally fucking comes out.

I played with Jonathan a bit. I decided after Meredith's disappearance he closed their pharmacy and moved back to the UK, taking their twin daughters with him.

As he was a pharmacist, eventually he got the attention of a Brujah who wanted drugs, and was ghouled. Yeah, Jonathan had a fucking meth lab. He absolutely hated being a ghoul and as he got older and didn't age, he was forced to distance himself from his daughters and basically be a disaster father figure to protect them and also himself.

His Brujah domitor had a Lasombra enemy, who, while fucking with the Brujah, noticed that her ghoul seemed to be pretty resilient to her fuckery. Jonathan was pumped full of Brujah blood, so had a huge "FUCK YOU" streak. Lasombra got distracted trying to fuck with Jonathan and eventually tried to Embrace him.

It took her four attempts, that's how fucking stubborn and how much a fighter Jonathan was. But she managed it. Ended up being a bad idea, though: the first thing Jonathan did when he woke up from his Embrace was stake her ass and leave her out for the sun. And then go back to running his pharmacy.

Problem with this backstory is... Meredith was Embraced in 2019. With the amount of time that passed, by the time Jonathan was finally Embraced we're looking at it being after 2050 in the timeline. So I adored Jonathan and was itching to play him, but I'd never be able to in a modern game because he's too far ahead in the timeline.

But I wanted to play him in VTMNR. I wanted to play him badly. So I tweaked a few things -- he still has the wife that went missing, still has twin daughters, still trans, still Lasombra... but he was Embraced in 1994 instead. He doesn't become as bitter and hateful towards Kindred because he didn't spend thirty or so years as a ghoul, and he had his sisters show up shortly after his Embrace, so he never lost that goofy part of his personality (even if there's very few people who are aware of it).

Given their near-identical appearances, Sullivan is now Jonathan's biological uncle who went missing when Jonathan was very young, almost too young to remember him. The two of them later would meet, towards the end of the 21st century, in Seattle, and Sullivan would attempt to take Jonathan under his wing, but by then Jonathan utterly despised every Kindred he'd ever meet and barely tolerated him. While I haven't decided for certain Jonathan will probably, at some point, be destroyed at Sullivan's hands for Embracing a powerful-ass vampire hunter and siccing him on the vampire populace of Seattle. Even as a Lasombra, given that he was Embraced as a Brujah ghoul, he still has a lot of Brujah traits -- and I don't see Jonathan ever fully toeing the line as a Cainite.

Jonathan might get away alive. Ultimately, he's still got that Brujah in him, and Sullivan doesn't like to physically fight unless he really has to so has few physical skills. But if Prince Cross, his beloved sister's lover, tells him to put him down, then he intends to finish the job. They might end up chasing each other all across the US for decades, who knows... depends if I want Jonathan to live or not I guess, or if I want to keep playing with a story that's nearly a hundred years away and will probably never get to write out (how many VTM fanfics take place in the far future like that?).

UH. ANYWAY. As for Amicia' and Kara's backstories, I'm sure @nightingaletrash will add those on when she can!

[robotslenderman]

One of his (ir)regulars is a blond man named Sullivan. Whenever he's in town he comes in to buy a sandwich for his wife, Jane, and always takes the time to tell him he's doing an amazing job, sweetie.

i think "guy who thinks another guy is his sworn enemy but the other guy is just normal about it" is one of the better and funnier tropes ever

[nightingaletrash]

World of Darkness girlies (and femme enby) in picrew 💜

Evie Byrne - Ravnos trickster

Kara Byrne - Lasombra occultist

Amicia de Lacroix - Lasombra blood trader

Khalia Lais - Toreador seneschal

Alix Xiphias - Malkavian oracle

Chloe Larson - Thinblood outcast

Amber October - Black Fury theurge

Alex King - Mortal hunter

[nightingaletrash]

vampire girls + femme enby <3 made in picrew

Evie Byrne - ravnos, troublemaker

Chloe Larson - thinblood, outcast

Kara Byrne - lasombra, historian

Amicia de Lacroix - lasombra, bloodtrader

Khalia Lais - toreador, seneschal

Alix Xiphias - malkavian, oracle

[nightingaletrash]

okay so. when did Alec realise that Amicia did in fact love him and was just Like That?

Okay so here's the thing: Alec has better social skills than Amicia and tends to read cues better than her, so he recognises the subtle shifts in her behaviour and aura, even as her surface attitude remains the same. So in his mind, he's the one winning the long game and successfully manipulating the Lasombra Bloodtrader into loving him despite how standoffish she is.

Meanwhile he has no idea that he has played himself.

[nightingaletrash]

And 5, 7 and 8 for Amicia!

Hehehehe goblin girl

5. Have they killed anyone? If they have would they kill again? If not would they kill at all?

The better question is who she hasn't killed. She murdered and drained Raul and his family in the first chapter, destroyed (and attempted to diablerise) Pattermuster after fucking him over, killed the mortals at the biosphere (sorry about your Uncle, Nomi), diablerised Reremouse, and sold out the entirety of the Tuscon Kindred to the SI in exchange for a free pass out of the city. She took great delight in killing Julian when he confronted her in the chaos of the attack, and now she routinely disposes of problems for the Camarilla in her basement 'winery' at L'Étoile Rouge in Seattle.

So yeah, she's done a whole lot of killing over the years, and she's not done yet.

7. How easy is it to make them cry?

I struggle to think of what could make Amicia cry.

8. Are they trusting or do they refuse to trust?

Trust is a funny thing. As in its funny to entertain the notion of trusting anyone. Amicia is the kind of Kindred who is prepared to burn bridges at any given moment in the name of self-preservation - even the people she's come to love (in her way) find her trust to be incredibly rare, and almost certainly not whole-hearted. A part of her will always be ready to cut and run. Or kill and run, rather.

[nightingaletrash]

aaaaand Amicia and Khalia (who blush of life their way through unlife)

[nightingaletrash]

The Mass Embrace

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Vampire: The Masquerade Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character Characters: Original Thinblood Character(s) (Vampire: The Masquerade), Original Male Character(s) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Vampire Turning, Mentions of Mental Instability, based on the original bloodlines 2 premise Series: Part 1 of The Thinblood Summary:

This city will bleed you dry. Most don't realise just how literal that saying can be.

[nightingaletrash]

@robotslenderman​ shadow fam...

[nightingaletrash]

Finally have a name for Amicia's snobby French restaurant/blood bar/murder den; L'Étoile Rouge.

[nightingaletrash]

Was just going through my tags and realised I've never asked -- how would Amicia react upon realising that *Sullivan* is on friendlyish terms with Sascha Vykos?

At first she was like

Then she was like

And then when he finally had concrete proof that she couldn't deny it was

Basically it's a real rollercoaster of emotions and she still doesn't know how to feel about it. Most days she pretends not to know.

[nightingaletrash]

kaiba and amicia in the same room would just be two of the most horribly insufferable people in the world either killing each other or bitching about everyone else together there's no in-between

[nightingaletrash]

@rosyfingeredqueer

Amicia and Sullivan

[nightingaletrash]

why did no one tell me that one of the things you can do with oblivion is essentially drag someone through their shadow into the realm where destroyed wraiths go and then into your arms??? Millicent has absolutely done that to her kids when they're being little shits!!

[nightingaletrash]

so me and @robotslenderman went to visit High Gate Cemetery this week, and while we were there, there was a brief discussion about how if Amicia and Sullivan had lived during the Victorian Era, they'd be in the business of body stealing and harvesting corpses for organs and blood in order to traffic them to other Kindred. And now I'm thinking about it some more and I wanna see this AU happen.

I picture Amicia as being an undertaker kind of figure to match up with her running a restaurant in canon, with her running a mortuary prior to the rise of embalming and women being pushed out of the business of caring for the dead. She'd receive the bodies of the recently deceased, either from the grieving families or from Sullivan and other body snatchers, so that she could prepare them for burial and harvest them of their organs and blood (if possible). If the contents of the corpse were unfit for harvest, she'd arrange for them to be sold to doctors and medical schools for dissection, claiming that the bodies were perfectly legal (prisoners, suicide victims, orphans etc). She's the face of the business and the one responsible for the legal side of things.

Even as women started getting pushed out of the mortuary business due to the rise of embalment and insistance that it was 'improper' for women to touch a man's body, Amicia had a way of repelling all attempts made to shut her down. Namely she made sure that her competitors were scared shitless at the mere mention of her, so potential clients figured that she had more nerve than they did in the face of death.

Sullivan would definitely be responsible for the less-legal side of the operation. He'd probably have a medical history that makes him real handy for harvesting, and he definitely taught Amicia how to do it and how to be as discrete as possible, all while procuring the bodies of the dead that had been handled by other mortuaries and funeral houses prior to their burial. He stuck around, helping Amicia get set up and teaching her what she needed to know, then once she was confident in harvesting, and had an efficient set up, he'd venture further afield to acquire less common 'vintages' of bodies to harvest.

They are the backbone of the blood and organ trade of wherever they're set up.