Blood of The Rose

Chapter 9: Beach Bums

Santa Monica Beach

As they reached the bottom of the steps from the beach house, Ruby paused after pushing the chain link gate open. "Hey, Weiss," she began hesitantly, eyeing the figures still clustered around the oil drum campfire. "Did you notice that kinda odd woman, did she speak to you at all?"

"Which one?"

Weiss shook her head slowly when Ruby pointed the dark-haired woman out, but she had a pensive look on her face.

"She kinda seemed like a fortune teller," Ruby shrugged. "I'm not really sure who all these folk are…"

"I think…" Weiss let out a soft sigh. "I have an idea, but it might be beneficial for you to find out on your own. Why don't you go speak with her."

"Yeah," the brunette nodded hesitantly. "Okay, I guess so…"

She headed towards the gypsy woman who had confronted her previously, but before she reached her, the raven-haired woman turned and began to speak.

"You have been… no, no, you are going to China."

"I'm doing what now?" Ruby blinked her eyes uncertainly. "What are you talking about?"

"Why is he smiling?" the woman continued as if the brunette fledgling hadn't spoken. "The father? Is it... Is it the father behind him?"

She parted her lips to protest that the gypsy wasn't making any sense, but never got the chance as the woman stared out into the darkness, her voice becoming hushed and her eyes wide with terror.

"You chased it for the one at the top of the city… on the sea… oh, underground… ha, you found it! In the crypt, heh… it's open, oh… oh oh oh it's open… oh God, oh God, run!"

"Um…" Ruby held a hand up, unwilling to touch the clearly unhinged woman. "Are… Are you okay?"

The woman shook her head, seemingly coming back to her senses. "Ah, I am sorry. Sometimes I see… nothing. Disregard what I say."

"But you were just… And all… Y'know…"

"I don't know what I'm saying," she repeated adamantly. "Forget what I say."

The brunette frowned, deciding to try another tack. "Sooo… do you maybe tell fortunes? Can you tell me my fortune? I'll pay you…"

The woman paused at that and peered at Ruby searchingly. "Fortune is not your destiny. All of us are unfortunate. Every time I sleep the future plays out before me. I know the ending… it will end over and over until I cease to dream. I know your questions. For one hundred dollars, I'll tell you what you don't want to hear. I need money to leave this place."

Ruby thought to the money she took off of the poker table and shrugged, this woman looked like she needed it more than she herself did at the moment. "Yeah, sure, here you go." She peeled off a handful of twenties and handed them over.

"Then ask."

It was actually fairly simple to identify what the most pressing issue was on her mind, with how alone she felt right now, even with a few people, some more questionable than others, looking out for her. "Who can I trust?"

The woman nodded sagely. "Hmm… The man on the couch. The smiling one. The queen of ice. The one who is only half yours. The lone wolf. The anxious cat. All others - tread carefully."

Ruby sighed and shook her head wearily. Always in riddles… The only obvious one of those she could determine was Weiss, but it was good to know she could trust her, though. Man on the couch? Oooh, Mercurio! Yay, that one was easy. Okay, she's waiting for me, I'll figure the others out later… Let's narrow the field down some more.

"Who are my enemies?"

"Many," the woman smirked. "Everywhere. Some with swords, some with smiles, some with honeyed words. Some will even become friends before your time with them is done. But I pity them all. You are a remarkable foe."

Well that was less than helpful… But really? Me, remarkable? Must be thinking of someone else, I'm just barely getting by here… Well, let's try some of the future stuff.

"What's going to happen to me in the next few nights?"

"The crimson ship. He's not who he says she is and it's going to burn. Dinosaurs? He's furious… the man with the crest… the voice in the darkness, boss… Chinese brothers. Follow the lights to the end of the tunnel. Where do you want to go?"

Annnd there we go with the riddles again. Fucking cryptic shit… Right, let's just finish this, I'm sure Weiss is laughing behind my back.

"Any advice at all?" she pressed. "Something that's going to save my life, maybe?"

The gypsy woman stilled, becoming eerily solemn. "Don't open it."

Well, that makes a whole lot of sense. FIne. "I'll think about that. Um, thanks for your time…?"

"Rosa," the woman replied with her rich accent.

"Right, well… Bye, Rosa."

The brunette vampire turned to see if Weiss was having a good time at her expense, but she was actually regarding her steadily with her pale blue eyes.

"Don't discount any of that," the platinum-haired girl stated.

"Seriously?" Ruby scoffed. "It was all so… y'know, vague, and…"

"I have a feeling it will make sense eventually. Now, go talk to that man there." Weiss indicated with a regal incline of her chin a shirtless man with a mop of orange hair, shaved on the sides, wearing only tattered jeans. "I think you might be interested in what he could tell you."

"Yeah, great… Honestly, you're as bad with this cryptic shit as the rest of them, y'know?"

Weiss smirked slightly as Ruby walked off. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Wasn't meant as one," the brunette grumbled quietly under her breath. She walked up to the surfer-looking guy, who eyed her approach warily. When he spoke, it was with a strong Australian accent.

"Listen, it's like I've told you types 'bout a thousand times now - we know we can't hunt 'round here, alright? We're minding our own business, no reason to hassle the weaklings."

"Okay, first, that's a totally awesome accent. And, second? I'm cool." Ruby gave him her best guileless smile. "Mind if I chill with you?"

"Be my guest. But you'd be the first. Most of the time you types like the white-haired girl over there just run us off, or in the case of some of the long faces we got gathered around here, kill us on sight."

Ruby glanced back at Weiss who was standing stock-still back where she'd left her, arms crossed and staring out across the water. There was no reaction from her even though the brunette was sure she was listening to their conversation, only her long white ponytail drifting on the unseen current of a gentle breezes to indicate she wasn't a statue.

"Um, that's… Well, why would they do that?" she eventually managed.

"Don't know," the man shrugged. "We all seem to have some down with the same disease - ah, hell, who an I kiddin', we're a bad horror show, alright? And we seem to be the runts - the mistakes. You types call us Thin Bloods… I say we're all equally screwed."

So they are some sorta vampires... "I'm kinda new to this myself. What's a Thin Blood?"

"Damned if I know. I know you don't want to be one. You seem to be in the loop - you tell me."

"Well, I don't really know." Ruby chewed on her bottom lip, wincing as her fang caught on it. Guess that's a habit I need to break, now... "How'd this happen to you?"

The man stared past Ruby's shoulder, lost in a memory. "I'd just came to town for the surf tourney - seems like years ago, but it's, well, been about six months now. Every night during the finals, I used to hit the local diner after the beach parties fizzled out in the A.M. That's where I met her."

Ooooh, a love story, neat! "Met who?"

"She had a natural beauty, not like all the plastic dolls littering the sand. Her name was Lily." He had a soft, reminiscing smile on his weathered face. "I remember introducing meself - the way she seemed grateful for the company. Well, a few nights after our meeting, we were on the beach alone and…"

His smile turned into a frustrated frown. "She tried to tell me what she was, but I didn't understand. And so, she showed me. I was furious with her when I took it all in. I cursed her and left, never really knowing what I was. I realize now how she must've felt. So, here I am, now, a mystery to meself."

Whelp, definitely not your average love story, more like… Romeo and Juliet. But with vampires. She'd never been one for the classics, but she managed to contain her snickers rather admirably, figuring they wouldn't be appreciated overly. "Is Lily dead?"

"Clinically, yes. But honestly, I don't know. I suppose I'd have moved on by now if I didn't think she'd show up one of these nights. There's a lot I've got left to say to her."

"So, um…" Shit on a brick, I don't wanna have to be the one to tell them this... "You do know you're... vampires, right?"

To her relief, the man nodded slightly. "That's what Lily tried to tell me. But what I don't understand are the rules and the terms and the reason some of 'em are at our throats claiming we're the harbingers of the apocalypse. That's what I want to know."

Ruby fidgeted, digging one of her converse-clad toes into the sand while glancing about the beach. "Are all these others here Thin Bloods as well?"

"Aye," he nodded again. "Most of them just recently arrived in LA. Got chased off by the Sabbath or some such thing from their home cities. They're more in the dark than I am. They're a good bunch, but… well they've been through a lot. It's affected them."

"Maybe I should look into this whole Thin Blood thing," she mused to herself out loud.

"Well I hope you have better luck than I did. No one's been particularly friendly to me in this city. Only reason we're in Santa Monica's cuz we haven't been chased out yet."

"Okay." Ruby gave him a firm nod and a smile. "I'll ask around, see what I can dig up." She glanced back at Weiss once more who still hadn't budged, planning to get some answers from the recalcitrant vampire.

"Well, we'd appreciate it. Oh, 'fore I forget, name's E. The black-haired beauty over there's Rosa - sees the future, so she says. That nervous bloke is Copper, and the one who can't speak so well's Julius. Kid's gloves with them; they've had it rough."

Ruby gave her new friend a grin. "Well, pleased to meetcha, E. My name's Ruby. So, any idea where I might begin looking for information? Or maybe on what happened to Lily?"

E let out a morose sigh. "Seems no one'll talk about it. This all started that night in the diner… maybe you could start there."

"Okay, then... I'll see what I can do. See ya, E."

"Take care of yerself, Ruby."

As soon as she'd finished, Weiss sprang back to life, trudging through the sand towards her. Ruby glanced over at the stone passageway that led to the staircase back up, but instead wandered over towards another rickety wooden stairway that seemed to lead up to the boardwalk. Weiss fell into step next to her, shoulder-to-shoulder as they slowly meandered across the sand.

"So what was that all about?" Ruby eventually whispered. "About the Thin Bloods and everything? Why do us Kindred hate them so much?"

The platinum-haired fledgling nodded slowly. "Thin Bloods… Well. Firstly, have you heard of the term Caitiff?"

"Nope. That's a new one."

"Caitiff, sometimes called the Clanless, are vampires who do not belong to any clan. The term was coined by the Camarilla." Weiss pursed her lips as the pair stopped at the bottom of the wooden steps and gazed out into the dark night that hovered over the ocean like a shroud. "Sometimes, when a childe is Embraced, something seems to happen between the sire and childe. Either certain defining traits are not passed along in the Embrace, or some manner of imprinting is missing. As a result, the childe inherits none of their sire's clan's Disciplines or weaknesses." Weiss next smirked slightly. "The lack of clan weakness is something which particularly galls the Nosferatu."

"Okay, sooo… Caitiff are Thin Bloods?"

"Sorry, no, not exactly. All Thin Bloods are Caitiff, but not all Caitiff are Thin Bloods."

"Weiss…"

"I know, I apologize." The platinum-haired vampire pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm doing a terrible job of explaining this, because the whole subject is so murky… Are you familiar with the Generations?"

"I heard that term," Ruby frowned. "From Ozpin, I think, but he didn't explain it."

"Caine, as the first vampire, is the first generation, the original vampire. As he sired Enoch, Irad and Zilah, they became the second generation and so on." Weiss' voice took on the tone of someone reciting something by rote. "Every Childe is one generation higher than his or her Sire."

"Um, okay… Wait, Cain was the first vampire?" Ruby screwed her face up, trying desperately to summon her admittedly weak biblical knowledge but to no avail.

"Yes… That is not important right now, we can discuss it later." Weiss wrapped her arms around her chest as if to ward off a chill, likely just a reflex action as the weather really didn't seem to affect Ruby much anymore. "There have been a total of 15 generations of vampires, with the 14th and 15th being considered cursed, almost all of them being Thin Bloods."

"Ooohhh… So, um, which Generation are you?"

"I am actually a 12th Generation," Weiss replied proudly.

"So Ozpin is an 11th, then…"

"That is correct."

"And, um…" Ruby swallowed, unsure if she wanted to really hear the next bit.

"I am fairly certain you are of the 14th Generation," Weiss stated softly without being prompted further. "Your sire was 13th, as I understand it."

"Right, okay." She shrugged internally. Not like it makes much of a difference, but maybe that's why I suck so much at being a vampire. "So, that doesn't explain why Kindred hate the Thin Bloods so much."

Weiss nodded. "Please keep in mind, I do not hold to these beliefs, but they make many Kindred quite nervous. You see… For centuries the thin-blooded have been persecuted by Kindred that fear their existence because Gehenna prophecies seem to indicate thin-blooded vampires are a sign of the end times. And with the resurgence of so very many 14th and 15th Generation Thin Bloods… Most Kindreds are quite wary now of Siring more Childer. Even the Anarchs have reduced such activities."

"Huh."

"In fact, in all of LA, there are only a handful of fledglings, you and I included. It's one of the reasons Prince La Croix is so determined to regulate the Siring within LA, at least."

"Right. Well…" Ruby glanced up at the staircase. "I still wanna help out E and the others."

Weiss smiled at her softly. "I imagined you would. I shall help you."

"You will?" the brunette asked, surprised.

"Of course. As I said, I do not hold to such foolish misconceptions regarding the end of the world." She cleared her throat, glancing away hurriedly. "And besides that… You are my charge."

"Uh-huh." Ruby grinned widely at her as they began to scale the steps. "And not because you're warming up to me or anything."

"Certainly not."

"Admit it, Weissy, we're friends now."

"I will do nothing of the sort."

"Yep, we're besties. BFF till the bitter end."

Weiss sighed, though it was tinged with more fondness than exasperation. "You are such a dolt," she murmured.

A/N: I love Rosa's foreshadowing that the game writers put in there. All will become clear in due time...

Just a note on Weiss' attitude towards the Thin Bloods. While most Kindred do view them with decades of built-up suspicion and hatred, Weiss is a fledgling as well and doesn't necessarily cling to such 'irrationalities'. Hmm, perhaps yet another reason why Ozpin assigned someone as inexperienced as Weiss to assist Ruby… Also, we finally got into the whole Generational thing here, which isn't well covered in the video game but plays a much more important role in the original role-playing games, as well as the written material. Some clues might be found in there as to why Ruby struggles so much with being a vampire. Well, aside from her own quirky goofiness.

Can't go a chapter without giving major props to my awesome Beta and collaborator, Live to anger the World, and much love to all you wonderful readers and reviewers! Sharkdude5, AntonSlavik020, zerosabers, carpenter656, Whispering Kataclysm, djjohns94, kaiju62, Athkore, TacoKing23, and Hishin Trueflame. Hugs!

Stay shiny!