Picking up the can at his side, Jay gave a quick sip, savoring the sourness of the liquor mixed beverage. His eyes gazing over his appearance in the mirror as he offered a quick flick up and down, paying particular attention to his hair. The night would be nothing special, really, but he told the others he would be putting a little more effort in than usual, and so he would.
Parted to the side; crimson tips and all, he only needed a set of silver eyes and he'd pass for the girl effortlessly - his feminine features and build guaranteed that. Yet his eyes were a soft baby-blue, and so he had to settle as himself.
Ruby Rose, or in this particular instance, the gender-swapped variant: Garnet. RWBY was one of the few infatuations of his that kept him waking up most mornings, but then again, its decline over the years had slowly whittled away what little reason for such he had left. He wasn't exactly in a... shall we say 'good' standing in life when he'd first come across RWBY, having one of his few remaining friends tell him about it before she left for university, and perhaps onto prospects infinitely more successful than he.
It was his own fault really that he hadn't managed a thing after high school, but he was only a young twenty-one year old a little down on his luck; things would look up eventually... said most of his once long time friends. He still had some companions left, although he usually couldn't tell what they looked like most of the time, between trips to the bar and being scolded for intoxication on the job. His boss took pity on him though, as did his landlord and roommate, which was the only reason he wasn't begging on the streets.
No... stop it.
Tonight was not a night to let those thoughts consume him; no, tonight was one of celebration... maybe. On the one hand, volume twelve finally concluded the series, however it was such an awful conclusion it practically destroyed the last remaining shreds of his goodwill towards the show: his once favorite series was now, without a shadow of a doubt and solidified certainly in his mind, garbage. Why had he even bothered in the first place?
Cute girls living happy lives, that's what.
Each member had been unique enough in his mind to formulate a response from him, and Ruby's seemingly unbreakable will and desire to do what was right had been one of the few things to speak to him: he wanted to do what was right too. Ironic then, that her own hubris had twisted so perfectly as his own, leading her towards a downfall even he himself couldn't agree with. And yet, despite hating how the show turned out, he still couldn't let go of his love for the characters: all of them… or, at least what they once were.
Fun: simple and purely unapologetic fun. There was passion back near its beginning, a passion that was slowly washed away as the series went on. People joked about how the series had a low production value, but to Jay, that was what made it special: it was a passion project built from effort as opposed to overinflated effects. The show itself knew it looked bad, but it didn't care: RWBY was gonna RWBY, regardless of what anyone said.
He never should have gotten his hopes up; you'd think he would have learned the first time disappointment visited him in life.
A loud knocking came from the front door of his room, and Jay was quick to call out.
"Hold on, I'm coming!" Realistically however, he spent a bit of time looking himself over in the mirror.
He had the hair, yes, and perhaps the face, albeit more distinctly human, and lacking the silver eyes. The rest of him however was a mash of what he believed looked appealing. A black leather blazer: RWBY themed from when he still held onto hope, with a white hood, and a crimson Rose emboldened on the middle of its back just below the collar. A small white T-shirt with an exposed midsection - one of his previous friends said he had a cute tummy, and she was always nice to him, so he believed it. A short black skirt because that same friend leant it to him and pestered him to try it on, and he was already running the femboy look, so it wouldn't hurt.
Everything else was solid black, from the skin-tight booty shorts to the very combat boots Ruby herself wore, which he'd bought on sale from the Rooster Teeth store - when it was still in operation anyway. He had some leggings, but they looked more like a series of black straps running up and down his legs more as opposed to leggings, but they clung comfortably without slipping off, so he kept them.
Appearance was important for most people, yes, but for Jay it was doubly so; it was one of the few facets of his life still entirely in his control, and so he clung to it like a starving lion. Regardless of this, he believed himself presentable enough, now all that was left was...
The gun in the drawer.
"Yo." The banging on his door accentuated. "Are you done in there or what?"
"J-just a minute, I'm finishing up."
"C'mon man, we've got bitches to tend too." Jay heard a huff next. "Whatever. I'll be waiting in the car."
The footsteps falling down the halls gave the boy a moment of relief, however the looming tension of the object in his drawer remained. He pulled it open, and as his fingers graced the spotless metal, he felt a shiver go up his spine. He wasn't supposed to have it, this steel cannon of endings, but on the night he'd found the body of that police officer, he couldn't help but reach for it. Certainly he'd be found out eventually, but that didn't matter...
He had one bullet; his bullet.
Having only been to the firing range a dozen or so times in his life, he was quite the novice when it came to weapon handling, but you don't need to be an expert for what his final failsafe entailed.
Jay placed the gun back down in its place in the drawer, however he kept the single bullet at its side with him, in his hand, and now in the small pocket on his coat. He didn't have a license to carry a gun, but the bullet, the bullet was special to him - the last bastion of power available to him, that he may hold personally in his hands.
Silently, he decided to himself that today wasn't the day, and so he walked over to his bedroom door, and stepped out into the hall. The apartments were quiet this time of the evening on a Saturday, and so he was able to take his time as he made his way down and out to the car of his roommate and friend - why the man called him friend was a mystery beyond Jay, but he wasn't about to argue.
"Finally, you're finished." The guy leaned over, and Jay could feel the hefty musk of deodorant and body spray whiff off the man. Personally, the amount of perfumes used was too much for the boy, but he supposed his roommate was out to get laid more than he was to land a job, so he just assumed the girls at the club liked that sort of thing. "Finish polishing your nails?"
"Can we just go, please?" Jay said slowly, letting it be known he wasn't in the best of moods right now. His buddy just leaned away with a shrug.
"I'll take that as a yes."
The drive to the club was silent, mostly, barring a single question presented before they stepped out of the car.
"You doing alright man?"
"I'm fine." Jay stated, stepping out into the damp air of moonlight. His friend apparently didn't hear him though, as he started off on some other nonsense.
"Cuz, you know: if you didn't want to go, you didn't have to-"
"I'm fine."
"Okay." The man's hands shot up. "Alright. I get it, you're good." He stopped, taking a second to offer one more thing before making his way to the club. "Hey, if you're not feeling right, just let me know, okay? I'll get you back home, and we can chill over a beer, yeah?"
"I... alright." Jay spoke with a sigh, feeling a light pat on his back as the guy smiled.
"Good. Now then, I'll see you inside."
Jay watched as his roommate made for the club, subsequently earning a few eyes of the cougars out smoking around the entrance. One threw away her cigarette, linking arms with him and giggling even. The dude just smiled, looked to whisper something, and the pair were off inside to dance the night away, and probably spend it together in more ways than one. The rest were looking at him now, and he felt the stress start to pile up.
Breathe in, breathe out.
They were just curious, he knew it, but even so he couldn't stop that inkling of self-conscious doubt from slipping into his head. No, no he was stronger than that: with this belief now firmly and temporarily lit ablaze he walked towards the club, only to find himself freezing once his ears picked up on something.
"Hey, doesn't she look like that girl from that cartoon I've heard the kids talk about?"
"Oh, are you talking about the one where one of the company's members was arrested for assault?"
"Yeah, that's the one. Ruby, wasn't she?"
"Think the girl's a fan?"
"I'd hope not, my kids tell me the company's abusive, and that the story is bad."
"Since when were you a critic?"
"Since I heard the company started-."
Jay was walking down the street before he knew it, somewhat hyperventilating just a little bit.
They're nobody's, they don't matter, their opinions don't matter.
But did he really believe that? Jay tried to believe it, he really did, but in the end... wasn't he a nobody too? What success did he have to his name, being a loner loser who spent all his time trying to drink away any and all sense of emotion, because it was better not to feel than it was to experience pure misery every waking hour. Yet, when he did manage to drink away the bad, he'd often asked himself why he was even alive.
Perhaps the bullet would fulfill its purpose after all, only... it wouldn't be his bullet.
Jay only had a second to stare at the man who'd ducked out of the alleyway before a slight tingle pressed against his forehead, following a bang, and soon enough everything went dark. Yet the boy was still standing, and within the dark he looked around. His body was still here, but he didn't know what was going on. He paused for a second, moving around as if to try and feel the air. The world had vanished, and he was left alone in what appeared to be a void. He didn't know what happened, or where he was at all. Maybe he was just dreaming, asleep in his bed.
No... no he was very clearly on his way down the street from the club just moments before.
"Hello?" He called, trying to see if he was just drunk or stoned or some other plausible explanation as to his circumstances. He never went inside the club though, so he couldn't be blindly drunk... right.
There was that one drink back home though; was something wrong with it?
"R... Rose... Ruby... Ruby Rose..."
"Hello?" Jay called, having heard the voice echo out hauntingly. He had to stop then, and ask whether he even heard it to begin with, or if he'd imagined it himself. "Hello?"
Apparently calling out twice was worthless, but it had to have done something, because as Jay started fumbling around in the darkness again, his hands came across something... soft?
What?
It felt like fabric, and kind of squishy even; not only that, but it felt warm as well. He gave a few grasps, taking in the texture, and was startled frozen as color quickly sprang to life. He didn't know where he was, but he knew what he was looking at, and for the first time, he felt something other than muted sadness and regret: raw shock, with a mix of shame. His hands, they weren't pressed against an empty coat or fluffy blanket, no, they sat firmly gripped to the chest of a young girl, one who was far too familiar to be believable.
Ruby simply blinked, and let out a short screech. As she did so, he felt a pain in his lower abdomen nearly knocking him out cold. A hand wrapped around his throat, and soon enough a face was inches away from his, and crimson eyes blazed with devilish fury, all the while fire appeared to be burning around her. It hurt, it really really hurt, but he couldn't very well voice that fact as his oxygen was already being cut off completely. Jay tried to wheeze something out, but settled on just trying to keep his eyes open.
"Just what were you trying with my sister, huh?!" Her voice rippled across him like daggers, and as he tried to wriggle even a little her grip tightened. "Answer me!"
He couldn't, and his vision was slowly fading away. Yang Xiao Long, and her sister Ruby Rose. Was he seeing things, or, maybe he'd just passed out on the road before; was this all a fantasy dream? No, this pain in his neck, this inability to breath as his throat was crushed; it was real, all of it was real. Jay felt his head grow light as everything became a little woozy, and at this point he'd given up on the desire to try and speak, more willing to just let fate take its course.
"H-he's choking!"
"What?!" Like that the hand left him, and he fell hard to the floor. The mixed surprise in Yang's voice however was gone by the end of her next statement, as the rage slowly crept back in. "Wait... you don't even have your aura unlocked, do you, prick?"
"I-I-"
"Don't answer that." His hair was forcefully pulled up, and his blurry vision was graced with a blob of mixed yellow. "Listen here, creep: if you ever, ever touch my sister again, I'll do more than just beat you black and blue, you hear me?!"
His face slammed against the pavement as she dropped him, and he turned his head to the side to try and at least get a glance around the area.
"You're lucky I'm a huntress in training: if I was a fully licensed one though, you'd have every bone in your body broken."
"Y-Yang..." Ruby's voice sounded just like it had in the show, only, it held an uneasy edge to it. "Why does he look like me?"
He? They knew he was a guy... that was weird. Most just assumed he was a girl, at least when he was outside of work anyway.
"Huh." Jay could hear the elder sister kneel down before him, and he did his best to look at her from his position on the ground. "Hey, have you been creeping on my sister?"
"N-no." It took everything within him to spit it out, mostly because he could barely breath with the pain he felt in his gut.
"Then why the hell do you look like her, huh?"
"I..." He sucked in a breath. "I don't... know."
"Really, you don't know?" Yang's voice seemed to slash against his ears. "And yet you were having a hell of a time copping a feel, but no, you had no idea who the girl you were groping was, despite copying her hairstyle to a T."
Pain rang across his cheek as the boot slammed against it. The kick sent him rolling a little ways off, but he heard Yang call back.
"Get lost, and if I ever see you trying to do anything to my lil sis again, I'll make you regret it."
Jay couldn't hold it at that point, as the pain had finally taken its toll. Thus he drifted off into the darkness.
Author's note
...
Okay, so this is a new one.
So this isn't exactly the longest starting chapter, but this idea was more of a whim than anything, and probably won't get as much attention as the main story of mine. Luckily, this also doesn't follow the 'no edit' rule of that story, so if there are any major grammatical errors I come across after the fact, they'll have a chance of getting fixed - no more 60+ chapters of painful grammar.
Is this idea cliché, yes, but it's also a bit of a break for me personally, and due to that it won't have a direct upload schedule to speak of; chapters will come when they come. Besides, what's another isekai anyway? I know a group of you love 'em, so this is just more of the same.
