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Adrien
"Oh yes, I'm a burst of sunshine, probably the only sunshine anybody in this place will get to see." His retort dripped with sarcasm. Adrien crossed his arms, continuing to give Valente an uncertain look, but his features eased at Valente's declaration of not letting him die. The emotions he felt when Valente saved his life flared up again at the reminder that maybe he could trust him after all. "Oh...sorry. I've never really had anyone to rely on so...um I don't know much about how real friends act, only what I saw on tv." He felt foolish saying that, knowing Valente probably wouldn't care. He couldn't think of an appropriate response, but at the mention of magic, his ears perked up and Adrien listened carefully. "...Light magic? That's incredible! I thought that was only in the tv shows I watched. So ordinary humans can use magic? Would I be able to learn?"

His questions left unanswered as a woman approached, who Valente introduced as Marcellina, Adrien felt the color drain from his face as she asked if Adrien was dinner. He frowned, unsure of what to say, but to his relief Marcellina laughed and assured she was only joking. When she started talking to Valente like they were best pals, and Valente started to become distressed and curse his genetics or something, Adrien saw the confusion on Marcellina's face."Um, the spirit goes after beautiful guys, apparently..."he clarified, feeling a bit more at ease now that he could see she wasn't gong to kill him.

The fear returned when yet again another vampire approached, greeting him by name. "H-hello." He replied nervously, listening to the vampire give gifts to the others. Valente's sudden crying didn't help to ease his anxiety at all and Adrien couldn't help but wonder if this was another intimidating vampire like the boss, since Valente started sobbing because of the don too. He felt ashamed for hoping that Valente would help him again despite his savior's obvious distress. But instead of threats or taunts, the vampire handed him a book and his eyes lit up as accepted the object. "F-for me?" He muttered, both surprised and genuinely filled with gratitude. "Thank you." He saw the vampire in a new light and did not bother to hide his smile while he stared at the book, too happy to notice that the vampire should have had no way of knowing about his and Valente's conversation earlier. 

Adrien did not have any idea what the book was even about and he was a high school drop out who normally gave no fucks about books; but, this was his first ever gift. Even if it turned out to have incredibly dumb content, he was still going to cherish it and attempt to read it. He took a closer look at the cover, noticing that the book actually seemed quite worn. Adrien did not see any words so he opened to the first page, murmuring aloud in confusion, "Property of M.Z.?" Perplexed, the human turned to a different page and read the first line he saw. 

"He had been having these weird thoughts lately, like 'is any of this is for real or not?'. And when he fell asleep those thoughts trasnformed into dreams that took him into what felt like a new world away from his poor village, to a beautiful magical city on the ocean he later learned was named Atlantis. And he later realized he was chosen, a Prophet of Oz, and the future hope for his people. But his story begins much earlier; earlier, to when a young wizard named Faize Ceres met Valhalla Mancini."

Valente increased sobbing behind him brought him back to reality and he carefully shut the book, noticing it was now just the three of them. Adrien stared at his new friend for a moment, uncertain about how to help him feel better. "Um, Valente, please stop crying..." He began to say, awkwardly placing one of his hands on Valente's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. He forgot that Valente was human, like him, and he was probably just as afraid of vampires as he was and now Valente had to take care of him on top of that. Plus, there was the terrfying spirit causing chaos, so no wonder Valente was breaking down!

Marcellina
"Oh, so the spirit likes beautiful men then? Oh this is trouble, Valente, you're the prettiest face here! But don't worry, I'll find you a mask to wear so maybe that will keep her away." She felt proud of her idea, obviously, if this spirit was going to torment her best friend because of his pretty face, then she had to make sure the spirit couldn't recognize him!

Suddenly, Amepellio appeared out of nowhere, like always. Like most other vampires she felt nervous around his presence, but Marcellina always tried to act friendly despite what she assumed was Ampellio's vendetta of tormenting her best friend. It would be worse for Valente if the both of them got on the other vampire's bad side. "O-oh thank you for this, Ampellio." She gave him an unconfortable smile, even though she felt bad for Valente, "Rituals are more of Izel's thing, but blood is definitely my favorite gift."

She nodded at the text from Protettore and turned to the other two boys. The human was reading a passage from the book he got out loud, and when she recognized the word "Mancini", she did not even feel surprised that Ampellio had given the human a gift that would torment her poor Valente even further. Thankfully, he stopped reading further, and although she was curious as to where Ampellio had even found a book from her bro's home world Marcellina knew they had to focus on the boss's task first. 

"Yeah, it will be alright Valente, after we take care of the others I'll personally make you a disguise from the spirit, and then the three of us can pretend this never happened. We can just hang out in my room and I'll even provide snacks if you're hungry."

Izel
"Of course I trust the capabilities of my lord's elder brother and the wizard follower, if you trust them! But even so, I must guarantee your protection for spirits are not to be underestimated. They are the worse sort of damned creatures in this world. And my lord, yes your participation is helpful, we shall start immediately!" He frantically rushed into the room, the salt firmly clutched into his hand. Izel quickly observed the room, his head turning right to left to right to left and up and down and up and down before looking back to Anastasio. 

"I have decided the best area to conduct the ritual."he explained, fiery determination in his eyes, "That exact spot right over there." He pointed to what appeared to be the center pinpoint of the room; an area on the carpet a few feet in front of Anastasio's desk. Izel stuck his hand in his pocket and retrieved some sort of golden amulet from his village before he suddenly grabbed one of Anastasio's hands and, pleading "I apologize for daring to come into contact with the skin of your vessel, my lord, but I must gift this amulet to you before the ritual. It will be what protects you from the spirit," left said amulet in his palm.

Izel then led him to the spot he chose earlier, and placed the salt in Anastasio's other hand.

"Lord Anastasio, I will explain how the ritual works. We will make a circle out of salt and then you will stand in the center with the amulet and then I will...was it the word in your language? Ah yes, recite the chant and present my offering of my blood. Just a few cuts on my arms should do..."he explained, and a proud smile crept onto his face. "To make the ritual more effective I would gladly amputate one of my arms, or present a few humans for the offering, but I am still forbidden to do so...unless you change your mind and I may?"

Olivier 
"Of course, young master. I am assuming they shall arrive soon," he began to say with a forced smile at the thought of Ryo's grandparents arriving, employed by Protettore long enough to know that Jecht and Trixxtal liked to announce their visits last minute if they even bothered to let anyone know ahead of time, "So I will begin momentarily. The fortress will be spotless." The microwave beeped and Olivier carefully handed Ryuunosuke his food. "Careful with this...hot....hot pocket. Well, unless you have any other requests of me, I am going to start cleaning the fortress now."

I bet these vamps made a mess in the damn fortress, just before the vampgramps gonna show, I just know it. This place always gets fucked up just before they arrive. I bet the creepy ghost chick screwed up the place too. he thought, mostly from experience of having to clean up the fights between Ryuunosuke and Ryoichi, then cleaning up Jecht and Valente's fights afterwards. He was also dreading to see what happened with the spirit and how much he would have to fix.

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