DRAGOMIR BOYZ GET TRAIN'D

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Ru was in as much contact with Demetri as possible, but (as of this point in the time skip), had only been able to do his "youth attache" styles one or two nights. Also, Demetri tended to be profoundly unavailable. However, when Ru mentioned a desire to train, Demetri suddenly seemed somewhat driven. He told Ru to get the other Dragomir youths and meet him on the 50th floor of one of his office buildings - at 10 AM the next day! Ru managed to bring Tristan and Cameron. They knew it was for training so they wore workout clothes.

Ru would both be driven to train, for various reasons, and would also be apprehensive about the training sessions themselves, mostly because they're hard. But he'd do his vampire best and try to be committed about doing it.

The daysick dudes came out of the elevator onto a mostly empty office floor with heavy drawn blinds and workout mats laid out everywhere.

Ru is wearing his tanktop and plainest pair of pants, and he wouldn't even have the energy to put on his Lord Demos attitude. Lord Demos would never be awake at 10AM...

 
Demetri, for his part, looked daysick as he greeted them.
Demetri:
"Good morning, gentlemen. I won't lie. This is going to be very unpleasant. But you should survive well enough."

Ru gives Demetri his best smile.
Ru:
"I'll do my best. Maybe one day I'll be able to do this without feeling like old dirty socks."

He sincerely doubted that he would ever be able to not feel like old dirty socks.


Tristan:
"Does we have to do this? It's like, how does we aver win a fights with old vampire guys?"

Cameron:
"It does seem kinda... pointless."

Demetri:
"Au contraire. Gentlemen, you have a rare gift that mortal martial artists cannot possess -
endless stamina. That allows you to train without pause for hours on end, allows for quick
advancement if you can commit."

Ru:
"I don't think we have to do it, but it will help. I think...just like normal exercise,
if we do it often enough, we'll end up stronger faster. I don't think we'll ever be able to
beat up old vampires, but we might be able to beat up...well... other youngsters or monsters
if we need to."

He certainly wasn't looking forward to having his head slammed into a car door again.

Cameron:
"Yeah, like, couldn't we just take the long view? We got forever."

Demetri looked stern.
Demetri:
"You do not! Anything could happen in this crisis. You will be much better off if you
can train properly... Yes, you won't be able to beat much older vampires, but you can pull
a weight far beyond your years if you'll but try."

Tristan:
"*gulp*"

Ru patted Tristan on the shoulder. The man could use some encouragement, though he wasn't
encouraged by how easily Theodore beat up Anselm. If that guy ever wanted to harm them, forget it....
They were toast.

Ru:
"What are we going to do today?"

Demetri:
"Martial arts from now until nightfall. No dislocations and such until we can heal again,
but otherwise no holds barred. First I must establish your skill levels. Ru, you and Cameron try to pin Tristan."

He stepped back and looked expectantly.

Ru looked at Tristan somewhat apologetically. He was much shorter and likely more on the feathery-stick-type side than the other two.

Ru:
"...Alright...Um...Sorry Tris.."

He then THREW HIMSELF AT TRISTAN, mustering up a surprising amount of force. Maybe he was just lucky this time. Still, it might not be enough, especially considering the size difference, but it was definitely unskilled and clumsy. Self-defense classes were clearly not taken by Ru at any point.

Tristan was surprised, but Ru was so much lighter than him, the bigger guy easily kept himself from falling down - and shoved Ru back. Cameron jumped low at Tristan's feet, and got him slightly off balance.

Tristan:
"Why mee?"

Ru decided to go for the back of Tristan's knees! He puts his arms around them pathetically and pulls.

With both guys going low, Tristan's upper body was free enough to throw all his weight into breaking free, and rolled a few feet away.

Tristan:
"Ha! No footy business!"

Ru decided not to tell Tristan what playing footy was about, and instead rolled to his feet and looked over at Cameron to see where he was going, before trying to circle around him and jump up on him from the back.

Tristan:
"Oh now you doesn't!"

He hustled back several paces to put his back to a wall. Cameron had coordinated with Ru until they were both facing Tris at angles.

Cameron:
"This feels, like, juvenile."

Ru:
"I think probably because none of us have any combat training."

He remembered getting his head slammed in the door again. This time, in slow motion. He moved closer to the wall, and nodded to Cameron, to indicate they should both attack at once. He then flung himself at Tristan's upper body, using his vampire strength.

Oh, Ru wanted to use his vampire strength. But in the day time, all vampire powers were off - except the few minor benefits of being dead, like immunity to fatigue, poison, and suffocation...

He'd just use normal strength while trying to do it. Which will probably result in failure....

...Cameron came in low, and between the two of them, they pulled Tristan to the floor. Demetri stepped a little closer and watched.

Ru would scramble about trying to find a way to stop him from getting up. Again, it isn't very skilled. He'd probably try to pull his arms behind his back like people do when they are in gradeschool. He looks very apologetic.

It was hard to look apologetic in a way that would get noticed, the daysick vamps all bleary eyed in a dim environment with dulled senses. Tristan was just too strong for him, and it seemed stronger than Cameron as well. He jerked free of Ru - though Cam still kept him from getting up, at least. Demetri clapped his hands once.

Demetri:
"Stop. OK..."

Ru looked bleary-tired-apologetically at Demetri now, and slid away from Tristan.

Demetri:
"...That is much as we all expected, I'm sure. Tristan is the strongest, then Cameron, then Ru in a distant third,
and all of you are barely able to fight. Tristan, Cameron, you are the closest thing to an even match. Fight each other -
try to pin or beat each other down any way you can - until I say. At least an hour. Ru, you're with me."

Cameron:
"Really? Won't it get hella boring?"

Tristan:
"We'll talk about girls and stuff while I kick your butts."

Ru looked both intimidated and happy at the same time. Intimihappy. He smiled, but the smile was sheepish, and walked towards Demetri.

Ru:
"..Um, ok."

Demetri:
"Unlike those two, there is no contest here. So we'll take a different approach. Attack me every
way you can for a while. Then we'll switch and your only goal will be to block my attacks. OK?"

Ru nods.
"Alright."

He was not looking forward to getting the stuffing beaten out of him by the ever-dashing Demetri... Ru had never received any formal combat training, therefore, he took his cues from the only place he knew: Martial arts movies, and videogames. Since he had no vampire powers during the daytime, this may prove catastrophic. As his first move, Ru would prepare a high kick to the head. Hopefully his vampire body was stretchier than his human one, or this could just prove...sad. And painful. Both to watcher and Ru.

Demetri didn't even dodge. He just slapped aside that kick, and all other attacks with flawless parries. After about ten minutes, he said,

Demetri:
"Try something serious. Something you would do if your life depended on it."

Ru looks very embarrassed as he steps back, and then attempts a very hard punch to Demetri's right side of the face. He didn't really want to hurt Demetri, but all the force and momentum of a person who might want to are there.

Demetri actually moved his head back for that one, and redirected the force with one hand, causing Ru to overextend and lose balance. Because of the sparring technique they were using, Demy did not use the opportunity to attack Ru, just waiting for the man to regain his footing.

Demetri:
"More of those. Whenever you lose balance, try to regain it as quickly as possible.
Even if that means your new balanced position is on the floor."

Ru stagged forward, and was in perfect punching position.

Ru:
"Ok. I...hope I don't end up on the floor."

He had the sinking feeling he might do a lot of floor-fighting in the future. Ru would try to throw a similar punch with the left arm, and follows up by shifting his weight to avoid walking into a punch.

Demetri didn't move his head for this one, still doing a one-handed parry, but seemed to approve.

Demetri:
"Faster."

Ru follows up with the right hand, and again, shifts his weight backwards afterwards. He didn't really feel strong doing this, but he did feel a lot less off balance.

Ru:
"...Oopf."

He followed up with a left side hook! He dug up some very, very old, and dusty memories of 7th grade cardio kickboxing.

In their corner, Cam and Tristan's fights looked way more dramatic, with them falling all over the place. Demetri kept urging Ru to go faster and faster, as he parried all the attacks.

Ru somehow manages not to fall over, though he does eventually get very, very tired, and has to stop.

Ru:
"How are you so strong?"

Though he didn't need to breathe, he felt like his arms might disassemble from his legs, and drop right off the face of the earth in segments.

It was a weird feeling. He wasn't actually physically exhausted - his breathing was entirely optional, following the rhythm of the movements. But as soon as he let himself stop moving, he felt like falling dead asleep on the spot. Also, as soon as he stopped moving, Demetri looked very peevish and launched a series of snap kicks at his legs and belly.

Demetri:
"Because I never stop!"

Ru tries to ward off the kicks frantically, trying to balance not being destroyed by Demetri's vampire-fu and struggling not to fall asleep.

Just moving again as he scrambled from the attacks woke him up enough to continue. As soon as he was trying to dodge them, he knew they were intentionally inaccurate and light - just a wakeup call. Demetri relaxed his sass a bit and answered Ru's question.

Demetri:
"I used to be much like you, earning my keep with my wit and style. So when
I became a vampire, I was ill equipped to become a warrior. It took a long,
long time to get these skills."

Ru would do his best to dodge him rather than block. He was pretty sure that if Demetri's blows ever contacted his hands or legs, even by accident, he'd probably end up dancing on stumps.

Ru:
"I don't think I have much wit or style either." He offers, somewhat honestly.

Demetri chuckled: "It was a different line of work, I admit. Now then,"
he stepped back just a moment, "Pick a good stance, get your feet ready,
and we'll get serious about this."

After Ru was ready, Demetri started attacking. Actually, his attacks did land - without hurting him nearly as much as expected. Pulling punches?

Ru would try to block them with his hands first, which is probably not a great idea. Though at least the areas he tries to block seem to be protected with reasonable accuracy.

It didn't matter what he did, Demetri's attacks *always* landed. But the older vampire occasionally offered praise amid the beatdownz.

Ru just ends up with very well-kicked hands. And a nicely welted body to match.

Ru:
"How is someone supposed to block?"

He had, once, been punched in the face, but that didn't really offer him any blocking opportunities.

It just kept going. Zero breaks allowed. No rest, their bodies couldn't heal. Demetri broke them of the most basic combat mistakes, and taught them a few moves besides.

Demetri:
"One hand should be enough. Keep trying..."

At last, the night was drawing to close. Their bodies involuntarily healed up from the day's brutality, and Demetri brought them together for another talk.

Demetri:
"Now you know the basics of fighting without powers. For the duration of the night
or until you tap out, powers are allowed. Also, you will face a few special challenges."

Tristan:
"Aww mans!"

Cameron:
"This is already too real, man."

Ru would do his best to try to keep up. He probably would have given up a lot sooner, maybe loudly, if he wasn't also trying not to disappoint Demetri. Well, more than he had already by clearly being weaker and worse at fighting than the other baby vampires.

Ru:
"Special challenges?"

He felt...less horrible than before at least? Was that an improvement? It was like going from the lowest point in a soggy pit to a slightly less soggy and perhaps less dark one.

Demetri:
"First challenge... These martial artists have been instructed not to break your bones
or sever anything. You are not under such a restriction yourself. Steel yourselves!"

The elevators opened and a bunch of rough looking dudes in martial arts gear stepped out - some with weapons!

Ru's look of horror was just about cartoonish.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

 
Cameron:  "What the fuccc?"
Tristan:  "No, I rilly don't think this is good idea."
Demetri:  "There is no ring, no bell, no time limit.  Take advantage of your easiest powers - endurance, movement.  Be sparing with speed and strength, but use them if you must..."
The guys slowly moved forward from the elevator vestibule, the guys with staves and batons slapping them in palms menacingly.

Ru focused on the people who looked the easiest, and did his best to circle towards their side.  He figured, none of them would be...well..actually easy, but he could pretend.  Ru does not say a single thing.  He just has a look of cartoonish horror on his face.

The guys broke into an attack, yelling kiais and warrior grunts.  It was hard to tell who was dangerous - they were all so warm, wreathed in body heat.  The obvious thing was to put guys without weapons between one's self and the guys with sticks. Ru did so, and had a bunch of unarmed guys running up in his grits.  They were kinda buff looking, all taller than Ru, all with hard hands full of calluses from practice in brutality.

Ru does his best to try to work on only one...  He wasn't so sure about taking on more than one.  He was pretty sure he could only take on MAYBE 1/4th of a Tristan.  He'd back up until he was at a wall so he didn't have to worry about that being battered, and focuses on blocking his attacker's moves rather than attacking.

Ru's idea turned out to be a bad one.  The guys were so fast and strong, just laying into him with punches and such.  They backed off for just a moment, and two pulled his arms out to the sides so the other guy would have clear shots for even heavier attacks.  Meanwhile, a half dozen other dudes lurked behind, waiting to see if they were needed.  Ru heard Demy still saying things, amid grunts and sounds of trouble for the other guys, and pain from body blows crunching on his ribs.

Demetri: 
"Some of these men are relative novices, some are experts. Tactical movement will be essential."

Ru wasn't sure what on earth tactical movement would be.  He now wondered what brought him to this place.  Why was he here.  What was the meaning of being a vampire?  He stopped being existential to wonder if he could use his vampire strength to twerk sideways and slip out of there.  He did have a vampire body, even if it was a weak one.  (Ru attempts to awkwardly twist/twerk to get out of this hold)

Even at the maximum vampire strength he could muster, he was just about as strong as his captors - starting as a weaker guy in the first place was a big detriment.  But instinctively turning on his speed let him wriggle out of the hold and jump / roll to the side.  As he got back to his feet, he already had dudes very close to getting hold of him again.

Ru still had no idea what he meant by tactical movement, unless that meant 'moving away from the other guys, really fast' though he did try to slip away far enough to try a few punches at the nearest dudes.  He'd get very tired, very fast if he used any real powers.

Ru was now up to the strength of an average high school athlete and the reflexes / speed of a decent martial artist.  But that wasn't going to be adequate to handle multiple guys at once.  He ducked one, two, clocked a guy in the jaw, and they were all over him.  Through the mass of manly muscles, he could see Cameron super-vampire-jump to the ceiling and cling to it, rolling this way and that to avoid attacks from a guy with a bo staff.

Ru decided to try to bolt away from the middle, and try another one or two punches if he could manage.  Staying out of the middle was really it.  Or maybe he could just run his way in circles around them...  He wasn't really sure of his strategy, besides being in the middle of a martial-arts-pie wasn't a particularly good strategy.

The punches he was able to get off were not the kind that would keep these dudes out of the fight.  Running would only work so well in this confined space - he would possibly be fast enough to lose them on open ground, but with coordinated movement, they could get him here.  He heard Demetri talking.

Demetri: 
"That's tactical movement, Cameron, but be aware of the consequences, what it opens you up to."

Cameron: 
"Nuh, naw, damn!  The hell!?"

Demetri (quieter, to a human): 
"That's a fair tapout.  I'm not paying you to destroy yourselves.  Maybe, yes... Just block his escape."

Ru would try his hand at trying to dodge and get a few punches in as he retreated.  Maybe he could keep areas open to retreat open to him.  (Ru is basically trying anything to avoid being pummeled as best he can.  Which isn't that great)

He was quickly surrounded by dudes!  The only way out was up a wall.  He didn't have to stay on the wall if he didn't want to - he could leap off to another area of the floor, or hit the ceiling like Cam.

He'd try to go up the wall and end up behind them...Hopefully.  He's putting faith in his vampire-spider-shadow skills, and hoping that will be enough to accomplish a nice enough backflip and landing that he won't fall on his face.

Ru was never comfortable enough with shadow skills to use them in this scary of a circumstance.  But running up a wall and super jumping into a backflip that he could land flawlessly?  No problem.  As he landed in a crouch, two baton attacks swooshed over his head.  He was still half-surrounded, only by different guys.  He had to think about how he was going to start taking fools out of the fight, or just use endurance and maneuvering powers to outrun until they got tired or the other guys took them out.

Ru, being himself, would try to his his endurance and maneuvering to outrun them and tire them out.  He had no interest in being proactive with his fighting skills.  His way is the way of the coward, and apparently making him a vampire just made him a super-coward.

He took a brutal stab in the dead pointless kidney region as he stumbled away from the rain of clubs.

Demetri: 
"You won't be out of here until you defeat them all. Best start attackin- Oh, good one- wait, no. Get out of there, Tristan. That's doing you no good. Ugh."

Tristan: 
"Auuggagh!"

The previous hours of groggily failing to deflect Demetri attacks, combined with the awakening of his senses and powers at night, helped Ru recover his wits much more quickly after each burst of panic from a tight situation.

Ru would try to put vampire strength into his punches now, in hopes that they would do a little more than annoy his attackers.  It might drain his reserves but at least then he wouldn't have to flee all night.  He was very glad his body was mostly dead.  He just wished it was dead enough not to perceive pain...  He went ahead and tried to return that blow.

He had to duck and twist under another rain of attacks as he stepped back in the direction of the kidney stabber, and socked that dude in the mug for hella.  He flew back into another guy, but then quickly Ru had other dudes whacking him in the arms and back with batons of their own.  How did he get away?  Did he bust more attacks? 

Meanwhile he heard

Demetri: 
"No, Tristan! No, ahem, Excuse me gentlemen, let me get that for you."

A few guys: 
"The hell?"  "The fuck?"

Another guy: 
"AAAugh! Gedditoffme!"

Ru tries something wild, and attempts to dive between the legs of the dude in front of him now.  He'd try to get a little fancy and see if he can uppercut that guy in a sensitive area.  Technically this was fighting dirty but they were fighting who-even-knows-against-one-man...

Ru's move was good, except he realized the punch wasn't going to have enough force the way his body was moving, and settled for punting blindly behind himself with a heel.  It connected with something.  So many grunts and shouts it was hard to say if that guy was part of them.  He was in the open, but just for a moment - five guys could get up on him with one or two steps.  Meanwhile,

Humans: 
"What is this crap? Vampires?!"  "A fuckin' what?!"

Demetri: 
"I told you, their combat skills are weak, but they have supernatural methods.  Earn your keep.  Look, he's getting away."

Ru would try to stay kneeling and get a good punch off in what he hoped was the nearest guy's groin area, but you know, a knee or thigh or just about anything else could suffice.

He was becoming more aware of the limitations of reach in punching.  Earlier Demetri had been telling him something about how different ranges in combat called for different attacks.  He punched someone somewhere, but achieved little with the move.  From somewhere else he smelled blood, and it made him realize he was definitely going to need a bite or three after this mess.  Meanwhile,
Demetri: 
"Come on Tristan.  You need this.  Be a man."

Tristan: 
"(silence)"

Something: 
"(squeaky animal noise meaning) No! I won't be a man!"

Cameron: 
"AugH!  Back off, bro!"

Ru would try to do a sweeping kick...  It wasn't something he had tried before, but it was worth trying now...

Halfway through the sweep, he had to go all the way to the floor to avoid some attacks, but in doing so, he realized he could put his whole body into the sweep for better effect.  Some guys fell down.  However, one of them instantly grabbed on to him.

Demetri said, "Did you see that, Ru? Even as he was completely off balance, than man was still on the offensive. Any time to strike is a good time. This is all-out survival.... Now, I must take my leave for a minute. Cameron, keep your chin up."

Cameron: 
"Dammit bro! *ugh*"

Ru would try to kick him in the head with his opportunity...  No Demetri time didn't sound good.

Yes, a boot to the head was a good idea!  The guy was knocked out of the brawl, but Ru still had more guys grabbing and taking his place.  He was hemmed into a dogpile like a tackleball game!  That shit does not feel good.  Need for blood rising...

Ru would try to wiggle out...  Somehow...  He was now trying to avoid the desire to bite anyone...

He could feel his fangs emerge, he wasn't strong enough to get away!  Arg!  Maybe just a nibble?  Would they even see him do it?

He'd...  scream loudly and try to punch upwards as hard as he could.

Ru: 
"AARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Some guys shifted.  Were they intimidated? He burst out the top of the pile, but was still trapped below the waist by the tangle of dudes.  Flying Cameron!  Cam was jumping in from the ceiling and crashed into the guys below Ru, giving him just enough room to jerk his feet free.  Ru was standing awkwardly on top of the dude pile, able to see two guys closing in quick with staves.

Ru closed his eyes and screamed, flailing at them with his not-so mighty fists.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
He hoped that he might be able to smack away at least one of the staves.  As Cam passed, Ru gave him a look half-way between crazed and grateful.

Cam caught the look for a split second before he was jumping off a dude's back up into the wall again.  Ru whacked the guy's stick until the guy lost his grip, but the other guy stabbed him in the gut so hard he was lifted off the ground and flew back into the mass of guys he'd just escaped.  Fortunately, they were ill prepared in that moment.  As Ru's body healed itself and his hunger rose, staff guy leapt forward and whacked him upside the head hard.

Ru tried to grab the staff and push it right back at and into him if he can manage.  "RARRGH! GET AWAY!"  He was starting to lose control.



He got a grip on it, but his body was so light that he actually just pulled himself along with the staff as the guy tried to jerk it away.  He was free of the pile!  But yes, monster faced.  The guys were scared, but committed.  Demetri must have paid them well.

Ru tries to climb up the pole, still monster-faced!  Like the most werewolf pac-man!

Ru took more whacks to the face from the other guy, but soon he had a staff of his own.  Ho ho ho!  Having a weapon, even if he had to rely on vampire speed to make up for a lack of skill, was *hella* easier.  He could almost take in the scene without a wall of dudes in the way.  He saw Cameron doing his best.  His moves involved a lot of tackling guys into other guys.  Crazily leaping between walls, guys, and ceiling.  Many of his attacks were reversals - as guys chased him, suddenly spinning around to whack them with roundhouse kick or backhanded fist.  Tristan was nowhere to be seen though.  During this time, what was Ru's general fight strategy?

Ru figures that Cam had more training to rely on, maybe someone taught him the ropes.  Ru would try to emulate Cameron, though he uses his staff to try to poke and thwack guys and their weapons away!  All while making a beautiful monster face.

It was nice having some distance from the bloody noses and mouths of his foes, because that stuff smelled intoxicating.  Meanwhile, under the din of groans, guys shouting tactics and suggestions to each other, and violence, Ru heard Demetri talking somewhere out of sight - presumably to Tristan.

Demetri:
"Of course you can't fight Theodore with this.  But it will be a huge advantage if you are faced with Crowboys.  The treacherous bastards are allied with him, but much weaker on average... Please."

At last, Tristan came back out and joined them.

Tristan: 
"Hullo guys, what's - Ow!"

Ru was fighting hard trying not to find his way to some serious vampire making out-ness. "Tris!"

Tristan had been jumped already, first with an axe-kick to the collarbone, then with one dude joint locking him while another whaled on him with fists and knees.

Tris: 
"UGH! ARGH!"

Ru would try to come to his rescue with his bo-staff!  He'd try to smack one of them in the head with it!
"HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The joint locking guy evaded the staff but had to let go of Tristan, while the other guy caught that stuff so hard his ear spit a few drops of blood on his way to the ground.  Tristan looked at Ru with a sensitive expression for a moment, then jumped to the ceiling and started bounding across it to get away from the clusters of dudes.

Cameron: 
"Ru, headsup!"

There were guys inside his staff reach, and he wouldn't have the power to attack them with it.

Ru would try to back up far enough to roundhouse kick them when they rushed into him.  Going with Cam all the way!

He backed up a few steps and lifted the staff out of the way for them to get a bit closer, then did a leaping roundhouse kick.  So movie.  One of the guys was groggy and sluggish, so he took it full force in the neck.  The other guy was still in better shape and hopped over his friend as the guy fell, snatching Ru's staff away while he was off balance!

Ru jumped forward to grab it back! He also made a monster face and a loud noise when he did it.  Nothing beats a live-action-jump-scare.  "RARRH!!"

The guy was in too close of range to get in a solid attack or defensive move with the staff, and Ru successfully grabbed it back.  Guy was totally scared into losing his grip too...  The three vampires worked the crowd of humans for what seemed like an eternity, until they all tapped out.  As Demetri helped the wounded and weary away, they could hear him using mind control to make them forget about the ostentatiously supernatural things they'd seen.  As the last guy left, Cameron slumped to his knees and Tristan leaned on a wall.  Demetri came back into the room.

Ru fell on his face.  FLERP.  That is the sound effect of falling on one's face.

Demetri chuckled lightly.

He had no desire to get up at all.

Ru: 
"If we train again, will it be like that?"

Demetri: 
"Hm... It's not over yet.  That refrigerator in the kitchenette around the corner has blood.  Get some quickly.  The ninjas should be here in about eight minutes."

Ru: 
"Wait...N...N...Ninjas?!!!  Demetri, why didn't you say you were the coolest businessman around?  You hired ninjas and martial artists?"  He was too excited to be upset, and stood up as...painfully as possible.  "...I think I need a lot of blood."

Demetri: 
"I imagine between the three of you, you'll empty that supply."  He smiled.

Cameron: 
"COOL?! Really, Ru?"

Tristan: 
"This rilly isn't good ideas."

Ru: 
"... I... Uh... well, it's like finding a piece of gold in dog-poop really."

He looked a little ashamed of himself but smiled like his soul was dead at the other two babies.

Ru: 
"...What happens if the whole refrigerator gets eaten?"

Cameron: 
"You better not!"

They reached it and whipped the door open.  There were many 20 oz glass bottles of chilled blood.  The dudes started putting them away in stomachs.

Had this been a drinking contest, Ru would have been happy to drink down a beer-boot.  He guzzled as if this was his bachelor party.

Cameron started eyeballing the clock, though Tristan didn't seem to notice, focusing on rinsing and recycling the bottles.

Cameron: 
"I can't believe I'm saying this shit, but when the ninjas get here, let's knock out all the light fixtures."

Ru: 
"That's true, we can see better that way... And they won't at all. But when we fight our enemies, all of them will be able to see in the dark."

Ru wasn't sure if this was commitment, or masochism talking.

Tristan: 
"Why can't you believe you says this? It's good ideas."

Cameron: 
"I can't believe I said it because I can't believe ninjas are really still a thing.  It's fucking absurd, dude."

Ru shrugs.  After all vampires were a thing.

Ru: 
"I wonder if there are ninja vampires out there.  Probably...  What about teenage mutant ninja werewolf vampires?  Sounds more and more probable."  Maybe that was sarcasm talking now.

A chilling laugh poured out of the corners of the room outside the kitchenette.  A dark shadow passed by the door.
A voice spoke to them from within, "A ninja vampire?  Non.  A manly ronin, pairhap.  Ahn hon hon!"

Ru: 
"...Gaston Louis?" He asked... The voice sounded familiar.  Or maybe it was another CONNOISSEUR OF THE SWORD passing by with an OUUUUTTRAGEOUSSS ACCENT!

Gaston-Louis: 
"None ozzer!"

He stepped into the kitchenette wearing a cool trenchcoat, katana handle sticking out of it like a shiny Eastern phallic symbol.

Cameron: 
"Huh.  It's you."

G-L: 
"Eet iz you, ze last man to make love to Anzhela before she bass. A ztrange honour."

Cameron's eyes bugged.  Tristan put down the bottle brush very slowly.

  

Ru would have blushed, if he could, but he smiles despite himself. He almost wanted to hug the King of Cool himself...  He wasn't sure where that bugger had buggered off to but seeing him back was..nice.

Ru: 
"... Ah....You're... It's good to see you back again."  He wiped the blood off his mouth. Licking his lips would have been rude.  "You know how to enter."
(Gaston-Louis: But no one knows how to enter better than...CAMERON! > )

(not canon but very amusing)
Gaston-Louis: 
"Eet eez true.  99 bercent of ztyle eez een 'ow you enter a room.  Waill, Dametri 'ee bay me a gold brick to get for you ze mystick martial arteests in a fight.  Are you ready for ze awesome bower of ze ninja?"

Tristan: 
"*gulp*"

Cameron: 
"No.  Um.  I guess that's the idea, huh?"

Ru: 
"No, but... I'll make a good entrance then... If I've learned anything from your sessions, maybe I'll stand a chance."

He... he felt horrible and yet was kind of excited to lay eyes on a magic-ninja.  This was going to be amazing.  And horrible.  There was a new word to be made for it.  Like hormazing... no, that sounded like a drug advertised on tv.

Gaston-Louis: 
"Eet zounds as eef you 'ave an idea of the bower you face.  Good, good.  Rezpect is ze mark of a true warrior."

Tristan twisted his hands.  G-L stepped out of the kitchenette.  They heard Demetri's voice from some unknown place in the distance.

Demy: 
"Listen. This will be a much more deadly fight.  They have orders to not sever anything but can use deadly force.  If you can defeat them, tonight will be a success.  If you can defeat them without killing any, if will be a resounding success.  Good luck."

Ru felt horrible but kind of happy at the same time.  He had a feeling, he would definitely use the lights-out trick.

Ru: 
"...Th...thanks... Are you going to do this every training session?"

Gaston-Louis spoke from nowhere and everywhere, a supernaturally haunting presence.  "Eet depends on 'ow many gold bricks Demetri 'az!  Ahn hon hon!"

         THE END! or to be continued.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

GamesMastar: G
GamesMastar: M
GamesMastar: H
GamesMastar: A i'm gonna look at this gif of 2 dogs and a bunny for a moment
GamesMastar: T
GamesMastar: Gaston-Louis vanished the puff of smoke proverbial, leaving Dragomir boys to contemplate mortality and ninjas.
GamesMastar: Cameron: "Shit, let's get out there." Tristan: "Aww!"

Ru: "I still like that breaking the lights idea..." He looks around, and then tries to find a way to get out. "We aren't going back into the martial arts room?"
Ru: Ru looked around, as if mystical ninjas were going to fall from the heavens and swarm them like flies to meat.

GamesMastar: They were. Aside from the kitchenette and the elevator vestibule, both attached to the central area of the floor, the entire level was emptied of everything but heavy blinds and exercise mats. Two steps and they were all on the mats again, no ninjas or vampires in sight...

Ru: "...I guess they're waiting to ambush us. All Ninja style." He blinks, and looks around, extending his senses and wondering if Gaston-Louis was such a sensual ninja-ronin-vampire he could replace himself with a sexy block of wood. Did he really want to wonder about that?

GamesMastar: Cam: "List--" He was interrupted by Demetri, speaking from somewhere unknown. Demy: "Hesitation will be your undoing. We've spent all day learning how to avoid falling into feints and false moves. With that experience in hand, you should be ready to strike at every opening from any position."
GamesMastar: Suddenly, from behind one of the heavy sets of blinds, SHURIKEN! How did Ru try to escape the deadly stars?

Ru: Ru would drop and roll! He wasn't so good at the side to side dodging business. Hopefully that avoided getting a star in the eye.

GamesMastar: Cameron jumped to the ceiling, Tristan dove for the kitchenette, and all three of them had to use super-speed to avoid being hit! Ru was rolling along the floor, which made it hard to see where any more attacks were coming from. What next?

Ru: Ru would try to roll up and make a run out the open door for it.

GamesMastar: There's no door to reach for. He's in the open on the mats. He can try to run for the kitchenette and have a wall for some kind of shield, but then he'd be trapped in there if the ninjas come out. It was the route Tris had tried for anyhow... The other way to go felt even less safe - around the corner to the elevator vestibule. Again, it was wide open to attack / a possible kill box, but could shield from attacks coming from the blinds.

Ru: He'd make a run for the nearest wall. Maybe if he could surprise these fellows, his fate would be better. Or maybe he'd just be full of ninja stars.
Ru: He'd run forward towards the blinds.

GamesMastar: Ru scrambled to his feet, had to duck a few more stars, and ran for the blinds. From a different blind, a chain flew out, wrapping around his ankle! Meanwhile, he could hear Cameron running away from some kind of assault on the ceiling, and very quiet movements here and there throughout the floor.

Ru: Ru screams like a baby and would try to roll to unwrap himself. He was pretty sure he'd get filled with ninja stars now!

GamesMastar: As he hits the ground, the chain holder comes out of hiding. It's a ninja! As promised. The black-clad warrior is gripping one of those weapons that has like a hand sickle attached to a chain attached to a Ru. He uses Ru's momentum as he tries to pull away to swing forward and stab down with the sickle. Welp, you can hardly dodge. What to do?

Ru: Ru would grab the chain and decide to pull, hard, with vampire strength.
Ru: Call it vampire terror.

GamesMastar: The ninja redirects his attack! A real pro with a chain-based weapon, he is able to change directions as needed without skipping a beat. Slice! He deeply slashes Ru's left hand, then reverses the weapon to try and stab him in the head!
GamesMastar: So, this is all happening crazy quick, but how Ru feels and what he does with those moments is important. Not enough time for any soliloquies or even memories. But if Ru is in a panic or angry or whatever, I should hear about it. Also. When a vampire is wounded in an extremity, the blood loss isn't too bad and quickly shuts off. Ru can will himself to *not* heal the hand, conserving blood, if he has the presence of mind. Your call.

Ru: Ru completely panics and would have the primal impulse to flee the scene. It's the strongest feeling he's ever had about such a thing. He wouldn't have the presence of mind to think about his hand, he'd just be overtaken by the strong desire to escape.
Ru: He'd also scream, loudly.

GamesMastar: Ru's hand is cut soooo bad, just look at the skin there, and the cut is growing by the millisecond. Aiee, the ninja is like fifty feet tall and the skin between your fingers has a cut like two feet long (also the skin between your fingers looks rather long), but the blood heals it, and your foot is so tiny it slips out of the chain easily.

Ru: Ru wonders if he's become a bat, but there's no time. He'd try to slip away and move free! FREE! He'd try to fly!

GamesMastar: Bat Ru can hear his scream come back at him, laying out the world around him. But Bat-Ru has a bad problem. He can't properly fly, flopping along the mats erratically as he bounds away. Without flying, he can't escape the massive ninjas, what the heck is he gonna do? There are two ways to go nearby, slipping between the mats (not great), and trying to get behind a blind.

Ru: He'd try to bat-gallop behind a blind! Free! Squeak squeak!
Ru: He uses his tiny spiderbat abilities to scale he wall as well and hide there.

GamesMastar: A sickle the size of a gotdam guillotine buries itself in the mat next to him. Fortunately, vampire powers let him start scaling the window as soon as he gets behind the blind. He knows damn well the ninja knows where he is, and he can hear the ninjas rustling behind other blinds, too close for comfort. What now?

Ru: Ru would try to turn back into a man, and tries punching the nearest ninja right in the face. If they were going to cheat with flying sickles, their amazing coolness wouldn't save them from vampire-fists.

GamesMastar: Ru tries turning into a man, but is shocked by the realization he doesn't *really* know how. What's his approach? Mentally, what is he doing?

Ru: He would try to control his fear, and will his body back into...well, being a lot bigger. He could always stay as tom thumb and hide up here, the idea was temping, admittedly, but he didn't think Demetri would let him somehow.

GamesMastar: Controlling his fear got a lot more difficult, as the giant flying guillotine started slashing the blind down from the outside. Did he maintain?

Ru: He'd maintain as he was, and tries to move away from potential giant flying guillotine murder by shuffling.

GamesMastar: Shuffling was bat-flopping foolery until, unGGGGH! Ru was a man, clinging to a window backward, positioned directly above a ninja. Now, the ninja could see him as well, so he had to act fast.

Ru: Ru would try to act fast and drop-kick that ninja in the face!

GamesMastar: Sproing! He bounced off the window, foot to the face! How did he feel, aggression-wise? What remains of his pacificist tendencies in this moment?

Ru: There are none right now! It's kill or be killed! Well..ok, hurt or be hurt, he wasn't really into the killing, but he felt ANGRY AND AGGRESSIVE as a Ru could be.

GamesMastar: Ru wasn't trying to kill, but if he restrained at all in this moment, bad news. The fact was this: He could try to specifically do non-lethal moves, if he was about a thousand times more experienced at fighting. He kicked that ninja with a leaping snapping motion that made the dude's head snap back in a way that was positively alarming. Ru landed on the mat with his feet on either side of the ninja's head, standing tall enough to look around wildly and try to make sense of the room. To the right, he saw chains and sticks occasionally poking into view from around the corner - someone was fighting back there. Closer, he knew there were ninjas behind the blinds that could throw stars again at any moment...
GamesMastar: Suddenly, a ceiling panel slipped out of place and arrows rained at him!

Ru: He wanted to make sure that the ninja was still alive, but now wasn't the time.. He'd try to dodge out of the way of the arrows, and attack the nearest ninja! With...less force hopefully this time...

GamesMastar: He could hear there were ninjas behind a curtain about ten feet away. Fortunately, ducking behind a blind gave at least a small modicum of protection against the arrow rain. The ninja ahead tossed a fist full of stars at him! But they were not expecting his move, and it was a badly improvised attack - his elbow hit the window and the stars fell astray. How did Ru attack?

Ru: By kicking around at waist level.

GamesMastar: By now he had enough experience that day to know he needed power. He could jump for extra oomph, or do a very inexpert step side kick.

Ru: He'd try to jump into it.

GamesMastar: Sproing! Another jumping kick, but this one without the benefit of much surprise of high ground. Just the same, contact! He crumpled into a ball and flew away - a little too far to be believed. Sure enough, it was a slick ninja thing - diffusing his attack and coming up with a weapon! The ninja slashed at Ru with a straight blade with large curved tines.

Ru: Ru wished he stole a weapon from one of the other blokes, but it was too late! He decided to do something cheap and see if he could kick up one of the mats to trip Mister Slick.

GamesMastar: No dice, they were too heavy to manipulate with the speed to pull off that move. But in ducking to pull off that move, he lucked into getting missed by an arrow. Three arrows came ripping through the blind, one getting in the way of the ninja's attack, one almost hitting him, the others closer to Ru. The arrow hanging half through the curtain nearest him could make for a half-assed weapon.

Ru: Ru would take even a half-assed weapon, and makes to stab at their ninja in the leg area! You can't be cool and stealthy with an arrow to the knee.

GamesMastar: He got the arrow and lunged almost like a fencer, arrows still stabbing into the blind all around them as they fought. The ninja pulled his leg up out of the way of Ru's attack, and kicked him in the head, sending him sprawling to the floor! Your on your back behind some blinds with a ninja, some other ninja outside still firing arrows at you, some risk to his bro. The arrow is still in Ru's hand, what now?

Ru: Ru would try to stab at any available body part with his arrow, lurching upright and hopefully not also getting kicked in the face.

GamesMastar: The ninja hesitated as more arrows came in, and Ru got back to his feet in time to face him. Arrow in the side! Ow! But when the ninja decided to take advantage of his pain reaction to launch an attack, Ru could tell he was open. Where does Ru try to stab?

Ru: Ru tries to stab in the most open and least heart-like-fatal-type-place.

GamesMastar: The belly, man, hope that you don't anything vital & good luck bro. The ninja went down! Ru felt his wound trying to heal around the arrow in his side, and still more arrows were shredding the blinds around him. What now?

Ru: He'd try to run into the blinds and get the side of the nearest ninja!

GamesMastar: Once again forgetting to try to get a better weapon, Ru ran with an arrow. Probably best to get away from the spot the archer was shredding anyhow, make them guess where to attack next...
GamesMastar: Ahead was one ninja, wait, two! They did a crazy ninja move where one jumped up on the other's shoulders, creating a super tall four-armed ninja behind the blinds with Ru! They tossed shuriken a bit clumsily back here, but still got him in the thigh once.

Ru: He'd guess where to attack next, with his second arrow! Dual hand-wielding arrows. The shuriken really hurt, but he decided to ignore it and attack the blinds as...least killy as he could get with he giant ninja. He hoped that pretending to be a martial arts master would make him good at connecting! Take that Beetle Ninja Rider!

GamesMastar: They stopped tossing shuriken. The top one sprang off the shoulders, somersaulting thru the air above Ru!

Ru: Ru tries to jump off the ground and punch the jump ninja! Maybe that'll work.

GamesMastar: He has arrows, stab the jump ninja instead?

Ru: He'd try to punch them instead. He's trying not to make them dead.
Ru: He feels very bad about probably killing that one guy.

GamesMastar: They were trying to do a flyby attack with a sword, and while the punch missed, it did put him in a different position than expected, and the sword barely sliced his shoulder. But now, there were guys on both sides of him with ninja swords!

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

GamesMaster: G
GamesMaster: M
GamesMaster: H
GamesMaster: A
GamesMaster: T
GamesMaster: Ninjas to the left of me, ninjas to the right, here i am, stuck in the middle with.. two arrows. What did Ru do?

Ru: Ru would rush the closest and try to stab them in the hand with his arrows.

GamesMaster: They have more reach with their swords than he with the arrows. He could get around the slashing blade, but would be too low to reasonably aim for the hand. Attack somewhere else?

Ru: He'd try to get whatever was closest that might hurt but not kill his enemy if he hit.

GamesMaster: Legz. Ru feels like he read something about their being an artery inside the thigh, but that's all he knows as far as risks.

Ru: He'd stab for a leg. He doesn't really know his anatomy as far as legs are concerned so it's a blind stab. Maybe he'd do a knee if he was lucky.

GamesMaster: He hit some kind of meat, but the arrow didn't stay in - on the plus side, meaning he still had that weapon. The ninja took a half step back and wheeled the sword to a downward stab. Ru was low. Did he try to deflect or dodge, and if the latter, which way did he go?

Ru: Ru would try to dodge the stab by moving sideways awkwardly. He'd also try to stab the Ninja in the foot.

GamesMaster: Roll to the side, foot stab! He lunged forward, getting his foot free with a small but unpleasant gush of blood. As he crouched, the other guy leapt over his back, coming down with an overhand sword stroke. Ru's still low, what now?

Ru: Ru rolls backwards and back under the stabby fellow. Hopefully enough to make him miss.

GamesMaster: Ru rolled one way, then the other, and now found himself in open territory - no cover, except to whatever extent the other ninjas might not want to hit their comrades with missiles. One of his swordy opponents now had a bleeding foot, but both were facing him and ready for action. New move?

Ru: Looking at both of them with a sword made Ru wish that he also had a sword, though maybe that would have given him the false confidence to try some very unwise maneuvers. He'd try to go for the wounded foot ninja, and pushes him to see if he can stab him somewhere else. "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He decided that yelling loudly was the best accompanying action to this.

GamesMaster: They both meet him with swords - attempting to get close enough to do something was gonna get him stabbity. Unfortunately, he had momentum, and the only way to avoid those swords now was a super-jump over them, or a less safe attempt to go low.

Ru: Ru would decide to superjump over them, and roundhouse kick one in the butt. He's decided that will work. He wasn't really going to try to rely on his pillbug skills more than he had to.

GamesMaster: Fortunately, superjumps were free! They used a nominal amount of blood. He was having to burn more blood than comfortable just being fast and strong enough to last in this fight, but the jump wasn't an issue. BOING! Ru was Cyber Messiah! *fancy music notes, bullet vision*
GamesMaster: He came down behind them and booya! Roundhouse kick in the side - they were already trying to react, butts were out of reach. Injured foot ninja tumbled to the side, dropping his sword! Meanwhile, the other guy was already slashing at Ru again. Arrow parry or dodge, and if so where?

Ru: Ru decided that his new skill was going to be Cyber Messiah jumping. He had discovered the cheapest move in this fighting game! Time to exploit it. He certainly wished he had bullet time like he did as a bat. Could he just shift to bat eyes? Would that make it all slow mo? Ru would try to grab the sword and tumble out of the way. Too bad he couldn't jump.

GamesMaster: He tumbled beneath the sword attack and grabbed for the fallen sword - but wait! As he came up, he felt it was snagged on something. There was a four foot wire connecting it to the hand of its owner, who was now trying to jerk it out of Ru's grip!

Ru: Ru would pull really hard back. It might be tough to parry while being pulled as well. He was under the impression that these thin blades worked like beam-swords, after all.
Ru: hopes to one day (LARP) I mean method act Cyber Messiah. He imagined that Gaston Louis was a Cyber Messiah fan.

GamesMaster: As long as it was attached to the dude, he could fuck up any sword moved Ru tried to pull. The block was clumsy and Ru had to dodge with an off-balance sidestep, still playing tug o' war. Not method acting like a good Ru should.

Ru: Ru would try to give the sword a good, two-handed pull, hoping he wasn't going to pull this guy's arm off with vampire strength. He tries a good tug first, then turns the sword around and tries to use it to cut the wire. As much as he wanted to run around dragging a guy, like some offcolor movie, he'd rather be able to protect himself.

GamesMaster: Fortunately the guy's arm didn't come off, but as he slashed the wire, he accidentally slashed the guy's foot. Still, Huzzah! He was stumbling away from enemies and off balance, but the sword was free!

Ru: Ru would try to attack the second ninja with the sword! A weapon that wasn't poking people with two arrows! This was some kind of victory on its own.

GamesMaster: Oh, and we didn't say so, but he had to drop the arrows when he went for the sword. Now. Straight-up ninja action. Ru came in with a side slash and the ninja corrected his angle to deflect it. In the move, both guys kinda ran past each other like a samurai movie, and had to turn around. to face each other again. As Ru turned, the guy threw some crazy powder at his face!

Ru: "HEY, that's cheating!" He had to admit, there wasn't really any rule against cheating, and he had kinda...SORTA cheated when he turned into a bat earlier, but this was he rub. He assumed this powder was for blinding... and did his best to wipe it out of his eyes with his shirt. It wasn't perfect and probably opened him up to attack...

GamesMaster: He managed to avoid the worst of it getting in his eyes, but in yelling his offense, had inhaled some! It was kinda burning him from the inside, but hey, dead guy. But yes, he was open to attack, and got a katana through the ribs! Oh, that smarts. It went in the front and out the back.

Ru: Ru held back his desire to panic about being skewered like a piece of barbecue. Though he did scream like a stuck pig. He had the feeling he was probably doing the most screaming and yelling of any of the vampires tonight... He decided to try to jump backwards to make sure the thing came out, and attempted to move back to blind cover. Maybe he SHOULDN'T -
Ru: become the next cyber messiah.

GamesMaster: He jumped back off that stick, with all the ouch that entailed, and ran for the blinds. He came into them and immediately started to see arrows stab through it at him. Plus he could hear the other sword ninja coming in after him. On the plus, he still had his own sword.

Ru: Ru turned towards the nearest combatant, hoping to catch one of the archers in unawares. Or however unaware a super special ninja could get.

GamesMaster: The nearest target he could guess at the location of was the guy coming behind him. But turning quickly to attack - just like Cameron's cheap shots at the martial arts guys - could Ru bust a real ninja sword move?

Ru: He could SURE TRY! Mostly trying to imitate Cyber Messiah, but maybe by some luck he could pull off something actually effective.

GamesMaster: He turned around fast, lashing out with the sword. The guy tried to adjust the angle of his own attack but was indeed caught off guard. Ru was lucky he was coming in with a right slash - the left side was the least protected. The sword went deep into the ninja's left arm, causing him to spin in place, slapping against the window before collapsing in pain
GamesMaster: The guy wasn't unconscious and still had a sword tho.

Ru: Ru would try to take the sword out of his hand. Leaving him with a sword was no good.
Ru: If possible, he'd put his foot at it, and tries to hack the wire with his sword.

GamesMaster: He did it. Now he had two swords. And another arrow stabbed his arm. Dang, that guy on the ground sure has a lot of blood, and Ru doesn't. Hm.

Ru: Ru would try to avoid giving any lovebites, and takes the arrow out of his arm. His new project was moving around the blinds as stealthily as possible to hunt for archers to attack.

GamesMaster: He found doing little super jumps, climbing on the windows one minute then going low the next, these sorts of things helped him get less arrows in the grill. Peeking out between curtains, he could tell there were two archers - both hiding inside the ceiling across a big open space. He'd surely be a pin cushion if he tried to reach them in the open.

Ru: Ru would try to do a super ninja skill of his own, and sees if he can open up a panel in the ceiling.

GamesMaster: Yes! He got noticed and shot at a few times, but the angle reduced their accuracy, and he got up inside the drop ceiling! For the moment, he was alone in the darkness... (I'd like to switch to a more summary mode. Describe his general tactics from here and I'll describe general results.)

Ru: Ru would decide it was time to go rambo and spends the rest of his time trying to hunt down his attackers and find more sheltered positions. If he is caught in the open he'd try to use superjumping to his advantage like a cheating, cheap fighting game n00b.
Ru: He also does some very unnecessary posing that he thinks is important to martial abilities.

GamesMaster: Ru found that inside the drop ceiling, the "floor" was flimsy strips of metal and puffy board that wouldn't even support a vampire's light weight. The only way to get around - the technique ninjas were using - was to suss out which pieces of equipment were most well secured and climb on them, or stick to a wall. Also...
GamesMaster: The drop ceiling wasn't all in one piece. He had entered the outer section, which was nicely bereft of ninjas. The archers were on the inner track. And to his advantage, they couldn't see as well. Ru found an opening in the concrete and came at the archers individually from above, before sinking back into inaccessible areas and shadows.
GamesMaster: When he was done clearing out all ceiling ninjas, He could peek out onto the floor and do his own death-from-above styles. Eventually, he came across Cameron. The guy was hiding in a ceiling compartment, with weird weapons sticking out of him in six places. (back to normal mode)

Ru: Ru really liked this approach, though avoiding having a small snack was a difficult feat. He wondered back to a short while ago when his first thought while being assaulted by ninjas probably wouldn't be 'would anyone notice if I just...had a nip?'
Ru: "...Cam?" He asked him, looking at his newly porcupined state. "...You...ok?" He wondered if he should pull them out, but maybe pulling out the weapons would kill him, just like in he movies!

GamesMaster: Cam: "...Ah, shit," he whispered. "Ha, not good. So hungry. I think... Tristan is... gonna get the last of them."

Ru: Ru felt a sudden sympathy for Cam, and despite himself, would try to gently hug him. "I'll go help Tris... I'm hungry too."
Ru: "Do...Do you want me to take these out? They look painful."

GamesMaster: Cam shook his head: "You kinda squished one of the sickle things in worse with the hug, haha... I'll get 'em out."

Ru: "...I'm sorry...Alright Cameron.. I'll be back soon. And I'll make sure there's food." He had to say, he was thinking that food sounded really, really good. He'd then go DEATH BY ABOVE STYLE to hunt his enemies, pretending this was cool, and not what every 12 year old dreamed of doing in elementary school.

GamesMaster: He sought out Tristan, and found him in the elevator vestibule - monstered out and sucking a dude dry! What did he do?

Ru: Ru would decide to try to rescue said dude. "Tris! Don't kill him!" Maybe it was too late, but he was sure going to do his best.
Ru: (Ru: Too late for my earlier mistake... Maybe I should have eaten that dude.)

GamesMaster: Tristan is distracted for a moment, but still monstered out. Try to pry them apart?

Ru: He'd do his best by putting himself between them. He's already been beaten and stabbed tonight. Being bitten wouldn't be much worse. "TRIS, it's me! Please stop!"
Ru: (He's also prying them)
Ru:

GamesMaster: Tristan is soooo buff, but Ru manages to worm into the mix, and catch a big chomp on the arm. They wrestle another moment, and then Tristan stops... Tris: "Ugh, ugh, oh no..."

Ru: "OW!" He was expecting to be bitten, but it was so much worse than he expected. Like sudden aluminum razors in his mouth. UGH, it never got better. "...You...you ok?"

GamesMaster: Tris: "Uh, oh no... This all is horrible. DAMY!" Demetri appeared in other end of the elevator vestibule. Dem: "So far so good. Find Cameron, sort yourselves out. I'll get the ninjas sorted."

Ru: Ru just made a face of eternal soul death, as if to say that everything was so far all terrible. "I know where Cameron is... I...I think I killed someone." He now had time to feel adequately awful for killing someone. That guy probably had a ninja family....ninja kids... WHAT HAD HE DONE! Would they come to avenge their father one day?
Ru: Maybe, a family out there would only know their father disappeared, killed by a pint sized vampire twerp.
Ru: He went to go find Cameron. "...Cam? Cam, it's over...Come down...I can still help with the weapons."

GamesMaster: Demetri: "Well, one metric of failure. Otherwise, the evening was a solid success." Ru and Tristan went back to Cameron, saw him lowering himself out of the ceiling. Cam: "Hey bros."

Ru: Ru seemed to deflate like a balloon about being a portion of the metric of failure. A metric of murderer failure. He sincerely hoped Lord Demos didn't feel like this every time he fed, otherwise, this was going to be a long eternity. He willed himself to smile. "Hey Cam."

GamesMaster: Cam: "Ugh, wow. Can you believe we beat all those dudes? What a mess. Let's not do this again." Tristan: "Big times."

Ru: Ru just cringed. He was a little too muted to say anything, so he afforded them an apple-dummy nod.

GamesMaster: They got themselves a little more sorted out, buckled down their hunger, and waited. Demetri had some support dudes from the ninja's organization get them all carted off. Gaston-Louis mocked them as they were dragged away. And then... There were only vampires. Demy: "I think all of those ninjas should make some kind of recovery, so... By all measures a banner evening," Gaston-Louis: "Tsh. A waste."

Ru: Ru tried to imagine what Gaston-Louis would consider not-a-waste and figured probably some kind of big banner blood-splatter event. "Gaston-Louis, what would an ideal evening have been?" He asks, in a smaller voice than usual. "...I'm glad he wasn't killed."
Ru: Ru genuinely means it. Though maybe the ninja children now had a paralyzed daddy. Or mommy. He hadn't really checked.

GamesMaster: G-L: "Ninja are train to be true wahrrior. Dhey are weelling to die. A waste not to uze zhem for ze mortal combat." Demy: "Yes, but my waste to make. I'm the man with the gold."

Ru: Ru would have blushed. "I...I think they were trying to do mortal combat. We were just...aiming for moral high ground...Mostly. They did their job." He said this in less of a heroic way than he planned, and more in a muttery-shy way. He admitted he probably should have been feeling more radiant, rather than hungry, dirty, battered and wounded.

GamesMaster: Cameron: "Yeah, what was the order? Don't chop anything off? Good job on that, dudes, but ouch." Tristan: "I don't want to do this stuffs any more." G-L: "Bleh! Weak cheeldren! I cannot ztand!" He turns and strolls toward one of the windows with its blinds slashed down. Demetri: "We'll do it differently perhaps."

Ru: Ru wilted a little with the brand of 'weak childreennnn!' but watched Gaston Louis. "Are you going to escape into the night?" He wondered. This was truly the path of the coolest of the cool warrior. The escape from the window. "I...I'd be ok for it, as long as I don't..." He tries to make a gesture, which could be easily misconstrued. He wasn't feeling so great, maybe he should have said no, but he was hoping for being more than the weakest link in their vampire chain. At the rate he was going, he was sure to become the weakest of the weak babypires, and that wasn't going to end up so well.

GamesMaster: G-L: "Escape? For a warrior ze only ezcape eez death. I merely turn away een deesgost from a deesplay of cowardice." Demetri rolled his eyes at the knowledge they were about to see an unnecessary destruction of his property. Gaston Louis spiderwebbed the window with a punch and knocked it loose with a snap kick. It flew away into the night, taking him with it, and depressurizing the room. Everyone's hair whipped around all cool.

Ru: Ru watched after him. He sure knew how to make a cool exit. Maybe he secretly spent his off-time watching a lot of cyber-messiah. Ru cherished the brief and fleeting feeling of coolness.

GamesMaster: Demetri: "That was delightful. Now, quick show of hands. Who can lull humans to sleep with mesmerism?" None of the boys had the skill yet. Tris and Cam didn't say anything.

Ru: Ru didn't lift his hand. He kept it hanging down, like his hopes and dreams.

GamesMaster: Demetri nodded. "Unacceptable. Just a moment." He glanced back to the vestibule. Three guys came out of it a moment later. Guy One: "You needed somethin' Mr. I?" Demetri: "You three. Look these three in the eyes. One each." Ru found himself looking at a human.

Ru: Ru immediately felt awkward looking a stranger in the eye. "Ur. Hello." He offered awkwardly, and then tried to stare. He didn't really follow up to say he could sort of hold people with his gaze. It would be weird now.

GamesMaster: Ru found it easy to capture the man's gaze. Guy: "Hey. You, uh--?" Demetri interrupted. Dem: "My battered warriors, lock the gaze. I take it you can do at least this?" Cameron: "Yeah." Demetri: "Now. Will and command them to sleep. Know what you want of them, and tell them to do it."

Ru: Ru concentrates on that. He was...really tired, much too tired to be Lord Demos, but he could at least conjure the feeling. He was glad that mind-reading wasn't so much a vampire thing in this universe. "... SLEEP." He focused on the intensity and raw power that a powerful vampire would need to command the weak willed to do their bidding.. Now, this power was his. "SLEEP NOW." He made some accompanying hand gestures, pushing his hands out.

GamesMaster: The guy's eyes rolled up, and he fell! Cam's guy fell a moment before, Tristan's a moment later. Demetri: "And *now* after an inordinately long time of barely hacking it, you three have the bare minimum skills you need to be a proper vampire." He put a hand on his chin, the other on an elbow. "I'm proud."

Ru: As Demi had a very dry way of delivering every line, whether sarcastic or not, he wasn't sure if he was 'joking' or serious, but some part of him took that backhanded compliment with pride. "...Thank you."

GamesMaster: Tristan: "OK, now can we naver do this again stuff?" Demetri: "Take the edge off your hunger with these gents and we'll go to the next floor to get you all cleaned up. I think... Maybe I will let you out of future training, but it depends on circumstance. We'll see."

Ru: Ru would feed on the gent, trying to be careful not to take too much blood.
Ru: Ru tried to imagine it was...very warm, kissy bitey tomato soup..

GamesMaster: The having sealed the human's wounds with vampire blood, the three Dragomirs rose to their feet again. Demetri led them to the next floor where they used shower stalls in an executive washroom to clean up, wearing thick bathrobes until they picked through a selection of fresh things to wear. They came together in a fancy board room.
GamesMaster: Demetri: "I'd keep the rest of your night restful and get lots of sleep for the next few days. Let me know if you have any problems, OK?" Cameron: "Whatever, man."

Ru: Ru would do what he would have to do. "...Of course, Demetri." He knew the older vampire was trying to help, but...it did bring up some questions about what Demetri did in his time off. Did he just do a 10 on 1 fight for funsies with bad guys, like Cyber Messiah? The questions kept piling up for their man of mystery. One thing was for sure though, he had a lot of unbelievable stuff to text some people later.

GamesMaster: IT'S OVERRR!