Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26968099-20151210045233/@comment-26397825-20151210061832

Basically what Phantom said. We actually see the body falling away in the next frame, and it's head and neck weren't leaking rose petals. The mass of petals was simply because Ruby was leaking aura all over the place from placing so much stress on her semblance, and because it's a nice image stylistically to have Ruby looking down at everyone with rose petals coming off her.

I think if she had absorbed one of the mooks, Junior would have mentioned that when Yang went to pay them a visit in the scene where he's yelling about how Roman hired them, and they sucked.