Author's Headnote: It's that time again. I've been playing inFamous and Prototype lately, mostly to get myself down nostalgia lane. But that doesn't mean I won't forget you guys exist. Night-time chapter, Ruby can finally do stuff outside, except she won't because she has to wait for the tickets to arrive.

To answer C3l3st14's question: I actually haven't thought about the muscle strength. Theoretically yes, she could use her full body strength without drawbacks, but I don't think Ruby knows that just yet. This question may influence the future of the story. As for part 2 of the question... let's just say ancient vampires tend to hold power that rivals or even exceeds a maiden's abilities. I'll leave it at that.

Now sit back, and enjoy the chapter.

RWBY: Festival of Blood: New Lifestyle, New Strategy

Ruby Rose:

Aura Status: 87%

Thirst: Not Thirsty

Semblance: Wilted Petal Burst

Grades: Unchanged

Team Activity (Required for advancement to second year): Nightshift Police Internship, starts at 7PM Thursday.

Team Relations:

-Weiss Schnee: She's thawing out.

-Blake Belladonna: Ruby is thankful for the sacrifices Blake has made; she may also be feeling more.

-Yang Xiao Long: Need to get her contact lenses.

End of Main character status report

Beacon Academy, 8:39 PM, Wednesday, Beacon Courtyard

Ruby is relieved she finally got Weiss to relax. Such a shame she couldn't do it while she was amongst the living. But hey, better late than never. Ruby smiled under bandanna, comforted at her accomplishment to help her team, even like this. She knows one-night Weiss will thank her, maybe not immediately, but in due-time. Ruby spent some time wandering around the courtyard, trying to think about something philosophical, but she couldn't come up with anything really. That is until she laid down on the grass, staring at the night sky. Ruby was also curiously rubbing where she was bit on the neck two days ago.

The young girl thought about everything she wanted to do. She wanted to be a hero, rescue a princess, slay a powerful grimm, have her first kiss, spend more time with her friends, hug her mother one last time. A non-existent tear shed through her eye. Perhaps she could still do most of those things as she is now, as a vampire. Although she is a bit curious to how she'd kiss someone without them knowing she's a vampire. Would her fangs get in the way? Not to mention her visible purple veins around her lips. there's a good reason Ruby's wearing that bandanna, it's honestly a disturbing feature.

And of course, any date she'd go to... it would be awkward being that she can't order a pack of blood off the food-ledger. Blue-rare steaks and bloody marys may suffice, although the latter won't be available to Ruby until she's legally aged. And than there's her body, never being able to fully develop to biological maturity. Of course, she has come to that conclusion many times, so no need to fret over it. surely, she could find some way around her looking underage for eternity.

Eternity... that's a very long time. Ruby doesn't want to think about that. Thankfully she got an educational book she's been itching to read on to learn more about her condition.

Vampirica Encyclopedia Volume 1, Chapter 4: Undead Physiology

Many vampires upon their rebirth would notice that their heart doesn't beat. This is because vampires are clinically dead. As a result, most internal organs in the body are non-functional. A vampire's body still heals of course, but it cannot grow. This is because vampires are incapable of aging due to their clinically dead status. This is unfortunate for any vampires that were turned before reaching biological maturity. The body also doesn't produce any heat, making it always room temperature.

The vampire's heart and lungs stop functioning, since blood pumping and respiration are not needed for a being that's clinically dead. Since the vampiric circulatory system is non-functioning, it would explain why vampires have to crave blood to keep them from being feral. Vampires can of course, still breathe. Breathing is necessary for speaking of course. But since vampires do not need to breathe, they aren't affected by fume-based effects, enhancing or inhibiting. They can also stay underwater with no fear of drowning.

The vampiric nervous system remains mostly unaffected. Although save for changes in the vampires psychosis among turning, which can be either barely noticeable to extreme shift in personality. One of the more common traits that vampires have is heliophobia. Although it's not a 'scared' fear, it's more of a 'hate' fear. Some of the good-minded vampires can develop some sort of remorse and unnerving sorrow for drinking from their victims. Older vampires may even suffer from a case of depression, whether it be minor or severe.

Digestion is not a concern for vampires; hence the digestive system is mostly withered away. An essence of grimm is present that will dissolve everything entering the stomach. And any desire to eat mortal food is mostly all but gone save for people who 'live to eat'. Chapter 2 has already covered the effects of eating mortal substances.

The skeletal and muscular system is actually enhanced. Other than a vampire can use their full body strength with no drawbacks. The skeleton is also a lot more durable, making it harder to break. both of these traits are further enhanced if the vampire has unlocked their aura before they were turned.

Skin and Hair will grow back, but it will not grow past the point of where it will initially be when the vampire was first turned. Fledglings won't have to worry going bald anytime soon, lest they shave their hair.

The various endocrine organs are unaffected, no need to worry about those anyway.

The immune system of a vampire is only partially withered. Since vampires are clinically dead, they cannot get sick, any parasitic viruses or bacteria that contract on the vampire will perish. However, a vampire could still carry disease. Being undead does not excuse hygiene, carrying disease will not make vampires last very long. If a vampire were to feed on a sick mortal, the immune system will trigger a reflex that would cause the vampire to vomit out the blood. After the vomiting, the vampire would need to feed even more to make up for the lost blood, they'd also need to clean up their blood-vomit.

The reproductive organs are sterilized without the aid of vampiric magic, this is mostly due to the fact that vampires do not need to reproduce to create more vampires, this is a fact that should be stated. However, it's not unheard of for vampires having children. A child born of two vampires will be a 'Pureblood'. If the child is born of a male vampire and a female mortal, it will be a 'Halfblood'. If the child is born of a male mortal and a female vampire, it will be mortal like its father. See Chapter 10 on different types of vampires. All of this is calculated only for singleborn children. Twins, triplets, and quadruplets have various outcomes.

This is quite interesting. It's good to know about the changes in Ruby's body. So, vampires can have children? Would the children be powerful or nah? She'll have to get to that later. Ruby's also intrigued about all these things about Ruby's body, she can use her entire body's strength, can't be seen by thermal detectors, and she's relieved she won't go bald. Ruby would not look good bald. Of course, she knew the stuff about her heart and lungs, it's only common sense. And apparently her disdain hatred for the sun is a common trait for vampires.

She stops reading because of course, this allows the information to develop into Ruby's brain. She wonders if she has acted differently than she normally does. Sure, she's sleeping during daytime and she despises that wretched daystar. But she wonders if anything else had changed about her. Sure, the rose petals left behind her semblance are now wilted and a different color. But what does it mean? What is the symbolism behind the change in her semblance? A red rose is typically used to represent love and romance. But Ruby didn't really prioritize either when she first entered Beacon, so it couldn't mean that. She's going to have to think on that.

And there's the fear of what happens if Blake gets sick. She couldn't feed off her if she's sick, it would make her vomit. She'd have to go out and actually find someone else to feed on. That, or tell the truth to another one of her teammates. Ruby would need a fail-safe of what would happen if Blake gets sick. She'd need to think of one soon before It's too late.

No mention of the 'Grimm Queen' this chapter. Yet again, how would they tie this 'Grimm Queen' to a chapter about physiology? She'd have to do a lot of research on that along with her upcoming classwork in the next week. She'd also need to change the way she fights, can't charge in blitzing anymore, her aura functions too differently for that to be effective now. Ruby heads for the training yard to practice a new fighting style.

Beacon Academy, 8:50 PM, Wednesday, Training Yard

The beacon training yard. Ruby's grateful for the tech this received three years ago, or what she may do is impossible. Ruby uses the console to spawn an armed humanoid. This is of course risky to do because her aura cannot regenerate on its own anymore. She unfolds Crescent Rose into her scythe form, preparing for the fight.

Okay, don't attack directly.. gotta avoid attacks. dodge, dodge.

The hologram fires it's gun at Ruby, instead of blitzing towards them and the bullet, she uses her semblance to dodge the attacks. And once she's behind the hologram, she strikes. Knocking it out and deactivating the hologram. She does this a couple more times to get herself into the habit.

After practicing on humanoid targets to get her basic strategy down, she than decides to test it on holographic grimm. She uses the console to spawn a holographic beowulf. It spawns and it attacks, Ruby gets out of the way and attempts to attack from behind. She than does so, killing it in one shot. Each time she does it, it gets easier to do so. Ruby than kicks things up by spawning an ursa hologram. Ruby knows ursai are much stronger than beowulves, an ursa major nearly killed her sister two years ago. But she also knows they are slower. Ruby uses this to her advantage to dodge back than move behind the ursai, striking it and killing it one shot.

Well that was easy, of course it won't be easy realistically though.

Of course, Ruby knows this tactic would only work if she's just fighting one target, multi-targeted strategy needs to be a bit different. She uses the console to spawn multiple armed humanoids. They all open fire at once, like the White Fang mooks from yesternight. Instead of rushing ahead and attempting to take them all out, risking aura damage. She instead uses her semblance to go behind one of the targets, grabbing them, and than pushing them towards the others, knocking them all down. While they are down, Ruby rushes in and takes them out in one sweep. She does this a couple more times to get herself the hang of it.

Now that humanoids are done, let's just finish things up here now.

And now for the final test, multiple beowulves and ursai. She first uses the console to spawn five beowulves. the strength of this species of grimm is in numbers, so it'd be a lot harder to take them out. She shifts crescent rose into her rifle form, being that it'd be more useful in this scenario. She jumps up and fires a shot at one of the grimm, killing it. Which just leaves four more. while in air, she has Crescent Rose shifting into scythe mode, and prepares to swing it mid-air vertically. This kills two of the beowulves. Which just leaves two more. She dodges back using her semblance to avoid contact and shifts Crescent Rose to rifle mode, firing at one of them. which just leaves one left. She than shifts Crescent Rose back into sycthe mode and performs her 1v1 tactic on beowulves. She repeats this process a couple more times.

After that Ruby spawns three ursai. She slides under the ursai and trips one of them from behind. She than stabs its back with Crescent Rose's blade, killing it. Which just leaves the other two. Of course, the remaining ursai won't fall for the same trick as the first one did. She uses her semblance to launch herself mid-air, and swings crescent rose around rotating, this cuts the second ursai in half. She than follows the 1v1 tactic on ursai for the last one. she repeats this tactic until she can get the hang of it.

Now that, was some intense training, fighting in a completley different way, woo. I'm gonna need a break.

Ruby uses her scroll to check her aura. She squealed a bit when she saw she hasn't got hit once! It's still at 87%. This means this way of stratagem of avoid enemy attacks instead of rushing in and attacking would work for Ruby. And it's a lot more efficient and stylish at the same time. The fact she's gotten it down so quickly is so strange. Did her vampirism enhance her learning capacity? Of course, since she knows she can use a lot more of her muscles in her melee attacks, they'd be stronger as a result of this. However, she doesn't want to use her full strength, it could end up killing someone. It's useful for winning an arm wrestle though, but she can't exactly do that without having a bunch of looks.

She heads back to her dorm, surely her tickets would have arrived by now. Blake and Ren may have also been asleep by then, so no worries to spend the rest of the night having some time for herself.

Beacon Academy, 11:28 PM, Wednesday, Dormitory Corridors

The young trainee huntress finds an envelope designated to herself, so she takes it. This is definitely the tickets she ordered yesternight. She's finally relived she managed to get that Saturday night out planned for her and the girls, and Weiss. She couldn't really think of anything that would get daytime to work now that she's a vampire, requires a lot of going outside during the day. But hey, a Saturday night to have fun followed by a Sunday night of stopping evil, it's a win-win for Ruby. Except for the one big lose of can't go outside and need to drink blood of course.

Ruby is about to head back outside, until she sees Blake and Ren walk in front of her. Blake has a dolly with a large wooden box, whilst Ren has a bag filled with Lien.

"Hey Blake, Hey Ren. You guys got back from your task?" Ruby asked rhetorically.

Ren just nodded and just headed back to the JNPR dorm.

"What'cha got there Blake? Clearly the Lien needed is not in there, so... what's it for?" Ruby asked curiously.

"It's an empty box I found while we were raiding a White Fang hideout, same with the dolly. I'd thought it'd be a good idea to bring it here." Blake stated.

"Why did you bring an empty bo- oh. "

"Yes Ruby, I got you a coffin"

"I'd still like to sleep in a bed during daylight hours Blake. And I doubt the box has any cushioning in it!"

"It's not for you to sleep in Ruby, it's for you to be carried around in daylight hours!"

"Oh. That makes sense. How are you going to explain me suddenly appearing and how are you gonna explain you carrying a large box on a dolly everywhere, though?"

"Ruby, you know I've taken acting classes. I can make something up."

"Oh right, you've taken acting classes. Still it's unexpected."

"Oh? What's wrong with it, Ruby?"

"I just didn't expect you giving me a coffin... well, it's just a wooden box without any holes in it, but I still prefer to sleep in a bed though."

"This is only just to get you through daylight, I don't expect you to pick this over a bed."

"Yep."

"Well, speaking of beds, I'll be hopping into one. Good night Ruby!"

"Good night!"

Blake heads into the dorm. Meanwhile Ruby just walks back outside.

Beacon Academy, 12:07 AM, Thursday, Launching Cliff

Ruby quickly snuck under the launching cliff. mostly to experiment on her grimm claws power. She notices the grimm claws does not seem to damage her clothing for her arms. but she's curious about her legs. To make sure no lasting damage is done, she takes off her right boot. She than does what she'd do with her arms, but instead focuses on her legs. She sees that her foot and shin is now in grimm form. Although it looks like it belongs to a beringel. The toe-claws are spiked, like they were with the fingers initially. Quickly she undoes it and sees that her stocking is unharmed. She quickly puts her boots back on and does it again. She quickly undoes it and is relieved her boots remain unharmed.

This is quite interesting. She can alter the physical shape of her hands and feet into a grimm-shape if she somehow gets disarmed. But she'd rarely use it because those grimm appendages will likely kill someone. She'd like to experiment her powers on grimm in the emerald forest, but that place has too much cameras for Ruby to do it discreetly, perhaps she'd take a stop by forever fall forest if she had the chance.

She climbs up the cliff without the use of her weapon. Sure, she'd like to. But she knows there will be a time where she'd find herself without her sweetheart. She gets up to the roof of the cliff without her claws. Of course, she'll need to use them now. She activates her claws, using them to climb up the roof the cliff until she finds herself back up the top of the cliff, where she quickly de-activates them to make sure no one sees her with grim claws. That would not be good for Ruby.

Ruby than walks away from the launching cliff, she heads into the weapon forge to give Crescent Rose some minor tune-ups. Her sweetheart needs to be in tip-top shape if she wants to make sure she doesn't break down, same with breaking Ruby's heart. She'd be broken if her weapon breaks. She's been working on her since Ruby first worked on a table. Sure, she wasn't always a scythe. But Crescent Rose has been with Ruby since she first built her as a simple rifle.

Beacon Academy, 12:17 AM, Thursday, Weapon Forge

Ruby returns to the forge to give her weapon a tune-up. She checks and sees if anything seems out of place or not in tip-top condition. She checks every single part of the weapon to see if anything is minorly damaged. The blade of course, is minorly dented. When did that happen? Anyways, she simply takes the blade and tempers it back to tip-top condition. She would not tolerate if anything on her scythe is second-rate. She always made sure her weapon is at top shape and quality, ever since she first built her ten years ago.

Flashback, 10 years ago

She was just a child when she first built the rifle, she found her uncle's supplies and started using them. She built every single part of her rifle hand by hand. First the barrel, then the stock... she had crafted every single part of the weapon. Sure, it didn't have a melee function back than, but she was proud of her creation. She built it, hand by hand. Although the stuff she used wasn't hers. Eventually her dad walked in to check on what the noise was and saw her daughter with a new gun. Normally, most parents would punish their children for using stuff without permission, creating a weapon no-less. But her father didn't, he smiled and praised her genius.

When she first started training the next day, she wasn't really good at using a gun. She was a child after all, using a rifle with intense recoil. It was actually how her aura was unlocked actually, the recoil was so intense her aura unlocked just to try and save her life. She than did some modifications to the weapon to reduce the recoil, sure making the weapon less potent, but it's better to not die from one's own weapon.

the following day, she fired at the make-shift shooting range again. She wasn't a good shot still, but she practiced everyday to improve her aim and precision. She also gave the weapon tune-ups to ensure her weapon is as if she first built her. It didn't take until two weeks after first building the rifle to finally hit a spot at the target. The missed shots were harmless though, they were simply soft plastic bullets, commonly used for children to learn how to shoot a gun. She felt accomplished that she finally managed to hit a spot at the target, although barely.

After that, she decided to commit to using the weapon, and attached a plastic bayonet onto the barrel of the rifle, giving it a small, but existent melee function. It was on that day she decided she wanted to be a huntress. She saw her uncle watching over her, and he approached her.

"Hey there, pipsqueak. Whatcha got there?" He asked.

"It's... my gun." the girl said.

"That right? Did you make it?"

"Yes!"

"Did you use my stuff?"

"yes... please don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, I did things without asking too when I was little."

"You did?"

"Yes, I did. Did you come up with a name for your gun?"

"Uhh... one."

"Oh, what it is it?"

"Crescent Rose!"

Back at the present

Crescent Rose. It was the first weapon she made, and the first weapon she ever used. Although the name was more fitting now than it was when it was just a rifle with a bayonet. Ruby didn't know what 'crescent' meant when she was younger. Good thing she decided on a scythe and not a spear. Her uncle's scythe, harbinger was the main inspiration of her weapon's melee form. As she grew, her weapon received upgrades and changes, to better suit Ruby's fighting style. There were many, many attempts and experiments done with her weapon. She tried for automatic, but elected on that would be wasteful. She had to remove the bayonet from her to make room for upcoming scythe blade. Heck, Crescent Rose was originally a mono-form scythe-rifle, but the forge back at signal gave her the tech she needed to make it dual-formed. The presence of the rifle still being usable in scythe form is evidence of that, Ruby takes full advantage of it too.

She oiled up the trigger, tuned up the barrel, repaired the blade, and checked to see if the magazine has any jamming. After a bit of work, she managed to get her rifle back in tip-top shape. Ruby feels happy that her rifle is back at her full potential. It's not only her weapon, it's her companion, her sweetheart, her baby. She cares deeply for her weapon, and she wouldn't know what to do if she lost it, or worse. She still needed to learn to fight without it though, even though it pains her.

Author's Footnote: And that's the chapter. My door broke and it's hell to open and close so expect updates to be a bit slower. And yes, Ruby will be carried around in the wooden box some time in the future. Ruby will now be fighting a bit differently, which makes sense to preserve her non-regenerative aura. I've also covered a bit about her past (well at least this variation of Ruby), in this timeline, Ruby built crescent rose at age 5, although it was just a simple rifle when it was first built. If you want more flashbacks, let me know. if not, I'll stop. If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, etc. leave them in the reviews. And if you have anymore name suggestions for Ruby's pizza-cutter, leave them there too. and see ya next time!