A group of five people were standing on the shoreline after disembarking from their boat ride. Four of these people looked at least somewhat normal, while one of them looked to be anything but. One was dressed to the nines, decked out in the most elegant of male clothing, and seemed fit for either a fashion show or a noble’s night on the town.

Another was wearing what could be called a mix of lingerie and an evening gown, while another was covered nearly entirely in blood-red armor. The fourth normal-ish one was gaunt, tall, and lanky as all hell, but wore a mix of a robe and a bit of studded leather and padded cloth.

And as for the very unusual fifth member of that group? Well, he towered over the rest of his fellows, even though his back was hunched, and his neck stuck out at a nearly perpendicular angle to the flat ground beneath them. Likewise, unlike the others, his skin was a sickly ashen grey and his mouth looked like someone had copy-pasted Venom’s onto that of a burly wendigo wannabe.

While the other four had fingers tipped with sharp nails, this fifth member of the gang didn’t even have normal fingers. Instead, he bore long, razor-sharp claws that fused with the digits on his hands as if someone had taken the very same fangs in his mouth and sized them up and then placed them where the ends of his fingers would have been.

Finally, unlike the others who bathed regularly and wore things that at least looked like modern clothing, this fifth person wore little more than a few tattered pieces of cloth, leather, and metal that seemed to be haphazardly fashioned into something resembling stereotypical caveman clothes. Between that and the bones and wooden fetishes attached to his clothing and himself, this fifth being was more monstrous than many would expect from a House Founder.

“Everyone, we’d best get moving. Daylight is coming fast, and I do believe that we’ve earned more than our fair share of odd glances simply by being here.”

The woman wearing the slutty clothes, Elileth Carmilla, House Founder of House Carmilla, strutted down the pier, her hips popping as she walked and her overall movements giving off a total ‘High-Quality Prostitute’ Vibe.

“Fucking hell, Lily, can you, for once in your whole whore life, not act like the world around you is one of your dens of inequity?!”

Elileth stopped and looked back at the fully armored leader of House Dracones and gave a signature look that blended ecstasy and mocking derision. She lived to make people uncomfortable with how she and her House looked and did things, and she had her own ammo to use against her ‘sister’.

“Why, Valka! I didn’t know that you considered being a hopeless drunk and utter party animal to not be just as debased as me and mine! Then again, who was it who once said that you could only enjoy our immortal existence by indulging in a bit of fun now and then? Oh, wait, I know!”

To this, the Founder of House Dracones grumbled and moved forward off the pier, the Founders of House Brandou, Nefarius, and Moreau following behind.

“Trhahg nrrrughar drzkash narhkrsssh.” Grathe said as the five made their way to a specially prepared building. Of course, nobody, save for another vampire, an undead, or either Kain or Alexis themselves could understand exactly what Grathe had said, but regardless he had managed to make a pretty damn good joke at Valka’s expense.

“Shut it, Grathe. I don’t want to hear it.” Valka grumbled.

“No, no. He does have a point.” countered Dion O. Brandou, House Founder of House Brandou.

“Indeed. I know this isn’t said all that often, Grathe, but despite your unconventional appearance, you do have quite a way with words.” Added Alec Nefarius, House Founder of… well, you know.

“Ha!” Valka laughed. “See, that’s the issue, isn’t it, Alec? You keep thinking that just because Grathe is the biggest and most bestial of us that he isn’t bright! As much I thought that joke was a bit harsh, even I openly admit that Grathe is more intelligent than you seem to think.”

“Hrrah grrrsh nrakh nahrrrz.”

“No, Grathe, that’s not what I meant by that.” Alec said, raising his near-skeletal hands in a placating motion. “I simply meant to say that most people who see your House Members without learning more likely see you and, by proxy, them, as nothing more than barely sentient tribal beasts. You and yours may not be the-.”

“Grrhrk nrrgshsah crrrkrrrah?”

“Yes, I suppose that works. Yes, as you so eloquently put it, you aren’t, and I quote, ‘the sharpest knife in the crayon drawer’, (a wonderful twisting of the saying, by the way) but you are still far more intelligent than most would take you and yours for. And, of course, now you and your House will finally get something worth your time and effort! We all know that the Sanguinocracy just isn’t a good fit for your House, but here? Here you’ll be able to indulge yourselves to your wildest content!”

“You make it sound like House Moreau is being kicked out of the Sanguinocracy, Alec.” Said Dion as he cast a sideways glance at the nerdiest of the House Founders. Alec had always had issues with the other House Founders, mostly because he felt somewhat inadequate compared to them. There was nothing making him ‘less’ than them, but he did want to be more than just a tall, lanky, gaunt, near-skeleton of a being. However, no amount of physical work would ever let him build up any muscle mass, and that fact haunted him endlessly.

“That is most assuredly not the case!” Alec nearly shouted. While he may have felt inadequate compared to his ‘siblings’, he absolutely hated leaving anyone out of anything that they were involved in. The Sanguinocracy was, in his eyes, a way to show that all Houses could work together and be one big happy family. And, to his credit, that had been the case thus far. It was rather that he knew that House Moreau was chafing under the strain of acting quote-unquote ‘normal’ and figured that if they had an entire continent to indulge themselves in, they could more easily get out their frustrations without risking the place that they had helped build.

“Grathe, please understand, I don’t think badly of you or yours. Nor do I want you and yours to leave the Sanguinocracy. I merely see this place as a way for you and your House to, well, unwind a bit. Even a common dullard could see that you and the rest of your House were having a difficult time coping with the rigors of regular life without the ‘wilder’ features that you were used to. Therefore, we can treat this whole continent as a kind of, well, maybe as a vacation spot, of a kind? And, when you and the rest of your House Members had vented to the best of your ability, you could once again come back to our new home and give it the old college try again and again. That would be better for everyone, especially if we avoided any incidents like we nearly had a few weeks ago in the process, no?”