Author's Headnote: Jeez, almost forgot to start this chapter. Among Us and Stellaris is very distracting! But hey, at least the microwave is fixed! At this point we're simply just wrapping up RWBY's time interning for the police, useless as they are in this timeline.

Altering between Lazy and Normal Weiss is a keen plan, thank you for the suggestion.

I had no other original plans for the last chapter, so you never missed out anything good or bad. I'll be starting the chapter now, sorry for wasting your time.

RWBY: Festival of Blood: A Night for Herself

Ruby Rose:

Aura Status: 96%

Thirst: Thirsty (She's going to need something to get the smell of bathrooms that haunt her taste out of her mouth)

Semblance: Wilted Petal Burst

Grades: Unchanged

Team Activity: Done, so as long as Yang doesn't screw this up.

Team Relations:

-Weiss Schnee: Ruby's glad she's calm and relaxed, likely won't last long though.

-Blake Belladonna: She's a good friend, although Ruby may want to be more than friends, she just doesn't know in what way.

-Yang Xiao Long: Questionable Sisterly Trust.

End of Main character status report

City of Vale, 11:00 PM, Thursday, Downtown

Note to self: NEVER. DO. INTERNSHIP. ACTIVITIES. AGAIN.

Ruby hated it, although she was trying to stay positive and not be a Negative Nancy. The police were lazy, messy, and Ruby is still questioning to how the heck a boarbatusk got inside a stall in a police station! Boarbatusks, travel in packs, like beowulves and ursai. How a singular boarbatusk got there is beyond Ruby. This just means JNPR has to work harder into solving that case, since the police are never going to figure it out. Speaking of, with the amount of time Ruby is spending with them, how long will it take for JNPR to find out Ruby's a vampire? Would they keep it a secret or rat her out to the headmaster first thing? She doesn't want to think about it, she also needs to grab a drink to get the smell-taste out of her mouth.

She sees Yang, apparently there has been no accidents in her time as traffic cop... surprisingly. Although there is a fork on the road.

Did Yang eat on the job?

"Hey guys! Didya miss me? And why does Ruby smell like a public bathroom?" Yang asked.

"I had to clean the bathrooms..." Ruby responded negativley.

"Jeez, what's with you Rubes?"

"There was such a mess in the restrooms I had to take off my boots and stockings to avoid ruining them!"

"Oh."

"And there was a boarbatusk in the men's room."

"How did a boarbatusk get in there?"

"I don't know."

"You've dealt with it, right?"

"It ignored me, actually, and it ran into the main offices only to be shot down by the police."

"Huh, why didn't it attack you?"

"Y'know, I've been wondering that myself." Weiss commented.

"Ya, typically grimm attacks the first person they see, why didn't it go after you?" Yang asked.

"Maybe the bathroom clouded the grimm's senses." Blake said.

"Ya, that!" Ruby backed Blake.

"Eh... we don't know that much about grimm sensory. But I'll take your word for it, why would my own sister lie to me?" Yang said, dismissing any suspicions on Ruby.

Now Ruby felt sorry for betraying her sister's trust, but she cannot find out to why Ruby is like how she is. Yang went to the police station to return her borrowed equipment, she also picked up the fork that dropped on the road and disposed of it. Ruby needs a drink... of blood. She'd ask Blake, but Ruby doesn't want to drain all of her fluids. Ruby walked away from Weiss and Blake to try and catch a bite on some poor White Fang mook wandering around downtown.

"Hey Ruby, where are you going?" Weiss asked.

"Oh, I'm just taking care of some things, you can go on ahead without me." Ruby replied.

"Alright, just don't vanish like you did Monday night."

She has all this time to herself. She can just head back to Beacon around 3:00 AM. But there's only so much a fifteen-year-old vampire could do at night. Nightclubs need their patrons to be around seventeen to enter or twenty to order drinks, so even if Nightclubs were on the table, Ruby couldn't exactly go to one without getting a fake ID. She said she was going to buy those goggles and gloves, so she may as well do them now.

Ruby went down to the store she went where she got her bandanna. She has 4,800 Lien; she can afford some goggles and gloves to cover the rest of her body to minimize sun damage on the inevitable training missions that have to be done out during daylight hours. Must have also been put in place to avoid vampire infiltration, headmaster Ozpin sure is a clever one. But Ruby has plans and ideas to counteract them, she's not abandoning her dream of being a huntress just because some guy bit her in the neck! She's browsing goggles and gloves that would match her color palette. She found some red fingerless gloves and black thin gloves; she can mix those two together. She also found some black sun-shaded goggles. Which is good, since she doesn't want to be blinded by that giant fireball of death. She hands over 100 lien to pay for the gloves and goggles. She than exits the store.

Ruby got what she needs for her first mission on the second Monday of the second semester. All she needs now is a drink of blood to sate her thirst. She uses her negativity senses to try and detect any White Fang mooks. Although she's just looking for one to be by their self so Ruby can snack on them in peace. Although beggars can't really be choosers when it comes to feeding off of criminals. She picks up a hint negativity and follows it. When she approaches the source... it's just some guy having a stressful day at work. Ruby than realizes this sense isn't like sight, all sources of negativity that can't be seen is just perceived as the negativity itself. Ruby should know this now. Perhaps she was just lucky around the first two times.

She picked up another trail, and It's a big one, it's making her feel thirstier than she ever has been. The fledgling heads toward the negativity. No White Fang, but a bunch of small-time gangsters. Still, evil-doer is evil-doer and Ruby needs a drink! She stalks the gangsters, waiting for them to let their guard down, she managed to find two of them by themselves. She hears them talking.

"Do you ever get the feeling we're being watched?" The first one asked.

"Nah man, you're just being crazy, they all too scared of us!" The second one said.

"We live in a world where they train kids with superpowers to fight monsters, one of them could be fighting crime as a hobby!"

"You've been reading too many comic books. No superpowered crime fighter is going to mess with us!"

"You say that, but have you heard of that girl who snapped that bartender's neck?"

"To be fair, that bartender made dolphins explode."

"I never understand how that works, dolphins don't explode like a bomb or a grenade or a plastic explosive!"

"I'm more concerned that she killed her over a string of hair, who loves their hair that much?"

"Raven Branwen, from what I've heard. Anyone who is stupid enough to touch her hair ends up decapitated."

"You think those two are related?"

"I don't know! Usually Black hair is a lot more prominent and dominant gene! I doubt she would have a BLONDE daughter."

"She could have dyed her hair black to intimate people."

"Nah, her eyebrows are black too, no one dyes their eyebrows key rule of fact."

"I'm pretty sure people do in fact, dye their eyebrows. it's just rare because the dye could damage the eyes!"

"And does it look like she's the kind of person who would dye their hair? Blonde hair can be just as intimidating, if not, more!"

"Blonde hair being intimidating? Like how?"

"Get some hair gel, and spike it upward! and yell! Don't forget the yelling! People will think it makes you stronger!"

"Who is dumb enough to be convinced that yelling makes you stronger!?"

"I don't know, I've just heard it from a guy, who heard it from a guy."

"And what does this have to do with hair!?"

"Oh sorry, I need to get back on topic."

Ruby sighed and just posted a meme on Rustit. It's a picture of an unamused face with the caption. 'When you're eavesdropping criminals for information and all they talk about is hair dye and intimidating blonde hair.' She has inbox replies disabled since she doesn't bother actively using that website, just mostly just lurks around the memes, weapons, weapon catalogs, ammunition, and cute animals. She doesn't bother having an account to browse pictures of girls, although she does browse them on other sites, they're not as appeasing to Ruby as authentic women. But anyways, it's time to interrupt their conversation on hair and get to feeding!

She waits until one of those criminals leaves, so she can feed on the other one in peace. Ruby finds it appalling she has to drink blood to stay sane, and likely survive, but she's limiting herself on volunteers and wrong doers. She also can't kill her victims, no exceptions. A true huntress only kills grimm, a criminal is just a person who took a wrong turn in life or is on rough times. Ruby tells herself that in her head, re-enforcing the statement. She only feeds on wrong doers just because she can't really get a volunteer at all times, so she turns to the bad people. The thugs split up and Ruby goes after one. She stalks the criminal into an alleyway and jumps behind him. She uses the grimm claws to not only conceal any evidence to pin her, but to make it think he was attacked by a grimm. She than lowers her bandanna and bites his neck.

The blood from the common thug isn't as flavorful as Blake's, it's taste isn't as good. In fact, it's similar to the White Fang mook's blood, it's just... meh. Either criminal blood is lower quality in comparison to that belonging to a non-criminal, that both of them are from a lower-place in society, and thus, lower quality, or there's something about Blake's blood Ruby doesn't know, or something about Blake. She lets go of the criminal, allowing him to pass out. Ruby also reverts her hands back into their human shape.

Now that her thirst is sated, she can now haver herself some Ruby-time. Although she quickly gets away from her victim before continuing that thought, no need for a criminal gang to rat Ruby out for being a vampire. She could spend some Lien on some outfits for the dance in next week. She does have her sister's old red heels, along with a nice red dress that belonged to her mother. But she doesn't want to wear hand-me-downs on an event such as this, so she may as well check out the dress shoppe in uptown.

City of Vale, 11:43 PM, Thursday, Uptown

Ruby knows where the dress shoppe is, she went there twice back when Yang was attending her final years of Signal. She was shopping for prom dresses. Back when Yang was obsessed with her ex-boyfriend, which she refuses to cite his name even in her head. But she doesn't want to think about him. She wanted to get a dress for the beacon dance next week. She went inside the shoppe. The dresses here are nice, but pricey. There are also various heels and flats. Ruby in particular would prefer to wear flats. She would argue she'd look good in them, but that can be said with anyone of the female sex. Even than, she tried walking in them, they are pretty, pretty hard to walk in. So, flats are the next best thing.

As for dresses, she's looking for something like the classic, knee-length sleeveless dress. Something like the dress she would wear, but the length is a tad longer, like down to her knee. That, and a fancy facemask, something that only covers her nose and mouth, bandannas aren't former attire after all. She's spends around 47 minutes browsing, she found some red flats, a red-violet dress, knee length, with a black stripe at the bottom of it, along with a black facemask. The price is around 20,000 Lien. She uses Weiss' business card to cover for the charges, she pickpocketed it from her before she went back to Beacon. Ruby went on her limit using Weiss' credit card. Ruby has got to stop spending Weiss' money on stuff. One of these days, her father is going to cancel her card, and Weiss won't know why.

She now has stuff to wear at the dance, along with equipment for her first mission to minimize sun damage. Now all Ruby has to worry about is getting to classes without burning alive... or dead. Ruby's not sure what word to use, she's not alive, but she's not dead... and undead just sounds creepy. Speaking of dresses, Ruby wonders what Blake would look like in a dress, Ruby has seen Yang in one... twice. Because of dress shopping for her proms in signal. And Weiss wears one almost everyday. Knowing Blake, she may even attend the dance in a tuxedo. Nothing wrong with that though.

Ruby stores her bought stuff in her locker, and sends it back to the locker rooms, she can put it away properly when she gets back to Beacon. The night's still young, she may as well enjoy the sights. Not many attractions are open to minors at night-time. And it's way past beach season so any night-time beaches that exist in Vale are out of the question, not to mention the travel length. Well, there's always next year. Wonder how she could talk Yang into heading into one of those twenty-four-hour beaches. Ruby knows she can only visit during the night, because the sun will kill her... more than she already has been killed.

She could visit the park, that's open all hours. The park is right between Midtown and Downtown. There are also the dockyards around Downtown and the Industrial district, but the fish and whales are quiet around night, and even than, Ruby doesn't feel like swimming. Ruby heads to the park to enjoy the sights.

City of Vale, 12:30 AM, Friday, Vale National Park.

The National Park, a piece of artificial nature that's between Midtown and Downtown. It's still nice though. Although most people go here for the CCT or for events based around in the building across. It's a lot bigger though, it has trees, benches, birds, animals, all that fun stuff. It was built around the CCT on purpose to show that the future will still have its roots in the past, or at least the council says so. The park was large enough to be held for large outdoor events too, this where the Vytal Festival will be held, along with the upcoming Pyrefest party that starts sooner than the Vytal Festival. The decorations for both are currently being set up so most of the park is closed until Pyrefest, and than the Vytal Festival. The sights of trees and stuff tend to please Ruby's senses for five minutes and than she got bored and decided to head back to Beacon... that is until two guys show up.

Both of them are vampires, not even trying to hide it. Clearly, they were looking for Ruby at the looks of it. They appear to be in their mid-20's or early 30's. The first one's wearing a jacket and cargo pants, the second one is wearing a T-shirt and jeans. And something tells Ruby she'll need to prepare to fight.

"Well, looks like we found the Duke's little new fledgling." The first one said.

"Isn't he called 'The Master'?" The second one asked.

"Only the fledglings call him that! He hates being called that."

"Oh. So why were we looking for er' again?"

"Look at her eyes!"

"I'm looking at them."

"What color are they?"

"Uhh... Grey?"

"No, you imbecilic buffoon! Who was the vampire that turned you?"

"Uhh... you?"

"Oh right, forgot you're one of mine."

"They look grey though."

"They're silver!"

"Ooooooh. The duke wants a silver eyed one. but why?"

"Neither of us are far up enough to actually be told why! We're only asked to bring her back to the Duke!"

"So... why are we talking instead of- OOMPH!" The second one said before being sucker punched by Ruby.

Ruby had drawn Crescent Rose while they were talking, and also sabotaged their weapons. Crossbows and Chakrams are pretty easy to sabotage. The two vampires drew their weapons only to find them scatter into pieces. Ruby laughed as they try to fix their weapons, only to go back to square one.

"Next time when you're talking, actually pay attention to your opponent." Ruby said with a cocky attitude, before using Crescent Rose's stock in rifle form to knock them unconscious. of course, them being vampires means the sun will finish the job, yet again they are already clinically dead so Ruby wouldn't kill them. She than folded back Crescent Rose into its box shape and put it back into her back.

Ruby searched their bodies for anything. Orders from 'The Duke' or anything to help Ruby deal with her condition. She found a slip of paper, written in cursive or some old timey writing. Ruby could barely decipher it thanks to reading Weiss' dust studies notes.

Bring me Ruby Hong Rose Xiao Long, yes that is her full name, she's half Mistrillian. She's a rogue vampire turned by me, so do not bring her in an urn! I need her for my plans.

-The Duke of Bloodshire

Bloodshire? that large town near the border of mistral threatening to leave Vale? Never thought they'd have nobility, much less a vampiric one. But chances are the title is only ceremonial now because it may be like a thousand years since the 'Duke of Bloodshire' has been to Bloodshire. But another question is raised to Ruby: how did he know her full name? Yang's full name isn't exactly common knowledge, but more people know her full name than Ruby's full name. Perhaps this Duke has been stalking information on her and actually planned on turning her for whatever plan he has for her. And she's glad she has escaped from his grasp.

Ruby continued searching the vampire's unconscious bodies, she found some blood packs, going to keep those and store them way at the back of the fridge so Weiss and Yang don't see them. She's happy she has a source of blood that isn't from a living person. Perhaps these vampires typically carry these with them, so they keep their sanity while doing tasks for the head vampire.

To avoid a guilty conscious, she moved the bodies of the unconscious vampires near a tree, so the shadow casted from them can shield them from the light. At least she hopes that's the case. She doesn't want them to die, even if they are undead servants of a wretched man.

Ruby hummed a tune as she was walking out of the park, she did just knock two guys unconscious with a rifle stock after all. Guess the trip to the park wasn't boring after all. And she got something out of it too, a total win for Ruby. She exits the park into downtown to take the first Bullhead back into Beacon, she can work on Crescent Rose and her new weapon from there.

Bullhead, 12:47 AM, Friday, From Vale to Beacon.

Ruby was once again riding alone on one of these things. These bullheads are automated because riding between a city is way too a simple task for a beginner level bullhead driver. She takes this time to do some simple reading. Afterall, nothing wrong with learning about her condition

Vampirica Encyclopedia Volume 1, Chapter 5: Common Myths put to rest

Many fledglings are actually curious about their condition mostly due to how legends tend to twist their views on vampires, saying they turn into bats or mist, run incredibly fast, have weakness to garlic, or other various nonsense. All of this has been tested, and the common myths will be put to rest in this chapter.

One thing for sure is that vampires do not have an innate ability to run fast, they could have a bullet time sense semblance or a speed semblance, but that factor is independent of vampirism. Vampirism does not affect reflexes, speed (reactionary or movement), nor the concept of time itself, so stop complaining!

The mythological weakness of sunlight and need for blood have already been proven in previous chapters. as for Ultra-Violet radiation in general, it's uncertain. the technology to create artificial UV hasn't been conceived yet, and a vampire should be concerned when that era of technology comes.

Now to cover up the typical weakness people affiliate with vampires: garlic. When someone thinks of vampire weaknesses, the first thing that comes into mind is sunlight. the second being garlic. Garlic in general is pretty harmless to vampires, although they may find the smell and taste of it repulsive, so there's that. It can also vary between vampire and vampire. Other than it being repulsive, there is no harmful effects garlic has for vampires. Where this rumor that vampires are weakened when being near garlic originated is unknown when this was written.

As for stake in the heart, since the heart is non-functioning, it does nothing but inhibit movement, but not paralyze completely. Makes vampires sluggish. A Bowie knife is a lot more fatal to a vampire though. And a stake in the heart would kill mortals, so various red herring slayings would have re-enforced the rumor that vampires can be killed via. stake in the heart, when in reality, it just makes them sluggish. A stake in the neck or head, however, is in fact fatal to vampires and mortals alike. It is wise to keep those wooden stakes away from the neck and head. Aura would shield any foolish attempts to drive a stake into ones heart, neck, or head.

For the also mundane weakness of fire and being decapitated. please note, both of those can be fatal to vampires and mortals alike, and aura would shield fire all the same for vampires. EVERYONE'S WEAKNESS IS FIRE! FIRE HURTS EVERYONE! IT'S WHY IT'S THE MOST COMMON USED VARIATION OF DUST! Fire doesn't hurt vampires more than it does mortals, it hurts them both all the same.

Some vampires have learned to shapeshift, yes. but non-human/faunas shapes typically take up a more grimm form, so if they want to turn into a bat, it has to be a bat grimm. As for mist, that is the most ridiculous thing that has ever been conceived, vampires cannot turn into gaseous water with a snap of their fingers, it's just plain silly!

The myth that vampires must be invited in is only partially true, but it's not related to the vampirism itself. A vampire's personality may change, but it still holds it's core functions, like an act of manners and honor. a vampire with good manners would not break into someone's house uninvited, they would find it very uncouth. A vampire with low or no manners won't have to worry about this since they don't care. This trait is only due to the vampire itself, not the vampirism it has.

Religious objects really don't affect vampires, why would it? It doesn't affect grimm so why would it affect vampires. On the subject of grimm, it should be known that any weakness grimm possess (minus having aura in some cases) is shared with vampires. Be wary to that, anti-grimm weaponry is dangerous being on the receiving end for vampires.

Lastly, it should be known that some lesser or weaker willed vampires have been known to be dominated by the Grimm Queen, just like any other grimm. A vampire should be wary to this and should build a strong mind to counteract this.

Ruby is intrigued by this. Apparently, she needs to work on strengthening her mind as well as her body and skills, being mind controlled by a powerful Grimm Queen is the last thing Ruby wants. She's relieved that a stake in her heart won't kill her, and even than her aura would block it out. She also learned that garlic and invitation are dependent on the vampire, not the vampirism, that's something she didn't know until now. Ruby already knew anti-grimm weapons would be dangerous for her, but she's thankful holy ground won't burn her to smithereens.

And one thing that caught Ruby's eyes is shapeshifting. Of course, they can shapeshift. but how? It's hard enough to take up her claws into shape, just imagine the entire body. Ruby would admit it would take awhile for her to learn that. But she prefers being her own shape for now.

The bullhead reaches Beacon academy, where Ruby grabs her bought goods and brought them to her dorm, along with putting her newly acquired blood packs at the back of the RWBY fridge. She than she went on to the weapon forge to continue working on her new weapon, as well as tuning up Crescent Rose.

Beacon Academy, 1:20 AM, Friday, Weapon Forge

Ruby first gave her weapon a quick tune-up. Just a few adjustments to the stock will be enough to satisfy, it's all she used of Crescent Rose today. As for her new pizza cutter, she added insulation a couple nights ago. So, she may as well go test to see if they actually work.

She went to weapon testing and turned on the motor for the pizza cutter. working as intended, the insulation actually made it faster. She applies the fire dust, and it heats up. It doesn't overheat the weapon, but the blades do slow down. she knows Ice dust works fine on it. now to test the lightning dust.

She applies the lightning dust and...

BZZZZH ZLZLZLZLLZLZLZLZLLZLZLZL

It went better than Ruby expected, the lightning stays on the blade. Ruby does not want to be on the receiving end of this thing! Great to see the dust parts of her new weapon is now working as intended. Now for the launching test. She pulls the trigger on the large hilt of the blade, carrying it like a missile launcher and...

SCHLING!

It passed the shooting test, but it failed the boomerang test. Maybe infusing the blade with gravity dust will yield better results?

She goes back to the forge and imbues gravity dust into the blade. Gravity dust is pretty versatile when it comes to blacksmithing. It can be used to make things lighter, heavier, or even move around differently. Remnant smithing would be completely different without it. Ruby doesn't use it often though, she prefers using dust in her bullets, not in her weapons. Although many would object, and Ruby understands why, it makes smithing easier, but Ruby likes a challenge thank you very much. Ruby's only doing this to these blades for they have a very specific purpose. They're to be like weird boomerang-esque blades. Ruby heads to the testing room to see if the intended result happens.

She fires the weapon aaaand...

SCHLING! SWWOOOOOOOOSH! TCHK

It worked! Now all she needs now is to test it with the various dust enhancements. First with fire aaand...

SCHLING! PHWOOOOOSH! TCHK

Ruby calculated the results. fire dust appears to have made it appear like a flaming disk, exactly as precedented. Fire dust could be used to do objectual damage. Next is Ice dust. She fires it aaaand.

SCHLING! WOOOOSH! TCHK

Interesting... the result is that the ice dust cooling down the blade, making it faster, made the air-time quicker. This will be useful dealing with enemies quickly. Now for the lightning dust... Ruby prepares for the worst and fires the blades aaaand...

SCHLING! ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. ZAP. SWOOOSH! TCHK

Apparently after being launched, the lightning dust ignores the insulation, likely a clash with the gravity dust doing its job. But it creates a sort of area of effect attack. Great for dealing with multiple enemies at once. This whole thing turned out to be a success. All she needs now is a name. And to clean up the mess she made, which she heads up to do ASAP.

Author's Footnote: If you are reading this, you have gotten to the bottom of the chapter. and for that I congratulate you. So ya, right now is the last call for weapon names for Ruby's new pizza cutter. I like 'Slice of Life', but I like to take in other thoughts before I can consider. I Originally planned a flashback, but I'd prefer them to be in chronological order. Ruby got in her second encounter with vampires so that's nice. Now if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. leave them in the reviews. See you all next chapter!