To be honest, this was not what I planned to return to the fandom with. I was going to write something different in between my jumping around the many Dragon Quest wips I somehow accumulated in August but then I got the idea of 'write a vampire story' and I was like 'which one?'

Clearly the answer is 'all of them.'

So during October, I'm going to mostly focus on my self-imposed vampire challenge. Any stories I manage to finish will be posted on the weekends. It could be just one or two at a time depending on how deep in the Writing Zone(TM) I got into. And yes, this will be just for NNK2. Nothing is coming to me for NNK1, sorry.

The overall rating may change in the event I stop being a weenie and write something ~dark~. Or something kinda ~sexy~. This is vampire fic after all.

(~Too sexy~ will not appear on ff dot net to comply with site rules, sorry)

I may comply with established vampire lore or I could just ignore logistical questions like 'how does vampire!Evan cross water if vampires can't according to this version of lore' or 'if everyone is a vampire, then how do they survive?' Anything's possible in here (probably). :D

COLLECTION-WIDE DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom. That belongs to Level 5 and Bandai Namco. Any properties I might cross over with belong to their respective owners. Content of this collection appearing outside of fanfiction dot net (under the username bilbo-sama), Archive Of Our Own (bilbosama), tumblr (bilbosama), and dreamwidth (bilbosama) has been done so without my permission.

UPDATE 10/21/2019: Title has been changed from 'Blood Is Thicker' to 'Sanguine Tales To Tell In The Crypt'

Sanguine Tales To Tell In The Crypt

By Bilbo-sama

The Fifth Pillar

"...And finally, the Fifth Pillar," announced the Hydropolitan guard, known to his friends as Alec, "no vampires allowed."

The small group of visitors from the west lands stared at him in confusion.

"Um," started the blond half-Grimalkin child.

"Yes?" Alec's colleague challenged.

"We heard your Queen is a vampire?" said the red haired girl, her statement more like a question. "Isn't she breaking the law?"

"Vampires," repeated Alec, emphasizing the 's,' "as in more than one."

He watched as comprehension dawned in most of the visitors. The man in the blue coat still looked confused.

"Aye, I get it," the odd red and yellow creature by the half-Grimalkin said slowly and loudly, "this place is too flippin' small to divide territory, aint it?"

The blue coated man seemed to understand now. Strange, this is one of those things you learn while you are small. What coral did he emerge from?

"We promise to uphold the Pillars of Law," said the man.

"Good," the guards returned to their usual duties, glad that to at last meet some tourists who are going to respect Hydropolis' decrees.

A few hours later, the children of that group broke into a forbidden high zone and proposed marriage within view of everyone.

Alec felt greatly disappointed. He was so sure this time it would be different. That they wouldn't be like other tourist groups in the past several months.

...Well, at least this time the fifth pillar wasn't challenged again.

(...Under his watch anyway.)