First thing's first, I've been… dealing with some stuff. More on that at the end of the chapter.
As the summary states, I intended this story to be a "spiritual successor" to DMI – put another way, it is not a direct sequel. This is a new story using the same premise (or at least a similar one), I'm just putting my own spin on it. As a quick note, this fanfic takes place in a world meant to be the Real World; if you would prefer to read a multiverse crossover set in a more "traditional" Remnant, by all means check out the original Distorted Mirror Images by The Layman (who has graciously agreed to be my editor); it's great fun, if a little old by this point.
In any case… welcome back to the multiverse.
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…
This world is boring.
No other thoughts drifted through her head as Ruby Rose lay sprawled on her twin-sized mattress, gazing absently up at her bedroom ceiling. In the random pattern of popcorn debris sat Diego the fox, right next to a crooked peace symbol and just underneath a frowny face; her ceiling had more character than the rest of her room put together, so it was little wonder she spent so much time staring up at it. There was a strange eyeball pattern somewhere near the door, but she hadn't been able to find it for a few weeks. Ah, well.
The only sound in the room was a faint ticking from right next to Ruby's head; the sole reason she'd bought an analog alarm clock at all was for that wonderful ticking sound. It was slowly driving her housemates insane, and that made it worth its weight in gold.
Ruby didn't have to look to know exactly where the other three were at that moment, since they mostly kept to the same schedules every day – Weiss would be busy with an essay at the desk, Blake would be reading a book from her vast collection (though God alone knew what her smut was this week), and Yang would be in the middle of a video game. She was replaying one of those dungeon crawlers, though Ruby had no idea which one it was.
"Yaaaaaaaang,"cried Ruby without moving, "I'm hungryyyyyyyyy."
"Rubyyyyyyyy…" came the distant, distracted reply, "Go fix somethiiiiiiiing."
"I forgot hooooooooooow…"
"Then I guess you'll staaaaaaaaarve…"
"OH WILL YOU TWO SHUT IT? I CAN'T CONCENTRATE!" Weiss' shout broke through the exchange like a bowling ball in a plate-glass window. "Ruby, we have plenty of food, just microwave a Hot Pocket or something for pete's sake!"
Ruby answered in a flat monotone, "I cannot see the Hot Pockets, nor the microwave, so therefore they do not exist on my plane of reality."
Silence fell upon the house. After a short pause, Blake muttered, "You're the one who forced her to take that quantum mechanics elective…"
"And I regret it every day," Weiss replied with a sigh.
Further conversation, if it came at all, was beneath Ruby's hearing level. She sighed, rolled over a few times and flumped onto the carpet, coming to rest on her stomach. There next to her bed sat a pile of comic books, all of them older than she'd prefer (though old was still better than nothing at all) and she absently began flipping through the issue on top.
There was still several hours before her shift at the local Whataburger, and she looked forward to it almost as much as her last dental checkup. Maybe a bit less, since dental work at least left her partially numb; hot grease had a tendency to linger when it splashed. The fact that she still couldn't get the cycle down for which thing had to go into the fryer in what order didn't really help matters. Stupid Weiss with her stupid studying, making her push the important stuff aside for meaningless jargon that had no real-world use.
Like yesterday, when she had an order to fill that required more fries than one basket could properly hold. Naturally, she put some in the unit next to the main fryer instead to try and save time. All the probabilities and 'universal constants' in the world weren't enough to keep the manager from chewing her out about "cross-contaminating the oil."
At least she didn't put chicken strips in the fry-only oil like on her first day… that was almost her last day without even trying.
Quantum mechanics is nothing more than 3rd grade what-if games couched in college-level gobbledygook. And you can quote me on that, too. She pushed aside her annoyance and tried to enjoy the pretty pictures at the very least, bobbing her socked feet back and forth as she hummed quietly.
"Yang, wrap it up. Class starts in half an hour," Weiss' voice cut through the silence with a bit more grace this time, followed by the sounds of shuffling papers and closing books.
"Tch… fine," came the irritated reply. Muffled movements echoed from the living room as Weiss, Blake and Yang got ready for their lectures of the day. University life wasn't for everyone, but they seemed to be handling it well enough. At least in Ruby's opinion. She knew Dad would be expecting both of his daughters to graduate with no less than a bachelor's degree in something, but the thought of going back to school after she just got out of it was almost as terrifying as riding the Gravitron at the carnival.
Yang popped her head into Ruby's room, "We'll be back later tonight, squirt."
Weiss cut in from the living room, "After the library."
Yang added with a growl, "…After the library. Which means it'll be late and I'll be hungry. You gonna survive by yourself or do I need to call Dad to come in and babysit you?" She put on a grin at that last part.
Ruby fought back the urge to snarl. "If you do, I'll ask him to 'fix' the TV for us."
Yang's lilac eyes narrowed, "…Well played, dear sister. Fine, you're on your own. Don't burn the house down."
"Wrecking ball it is, then," Ruby said before returning her attention to the comic. "Go on, get out of here."
"Love you, booger," said Yang as she walked off.
"Love you too, snot-wad," Ruby called after her without looking up.
More silence followed as the girls ventured out to the garage and into Yang's beat-up old Kia Rio. Ruby listened to the engine turn over, counted to 20 then sat up on her heels and watched out the window as the bumbler (Blake's name for it) sauntered down the driveway, turned up the street and rumbled off. Even from here she could see Weiss' animated hands through the back window as she griped about their only ride.
Quarter to one, evening shift in more than a few hours, and the housemates were gone for the night.
Free at last.
Ruby smiled as she hopped to her feet and pranced out to the living room, selected one of Blake's manga from the bookshelf and tucked herself into a corner of their big, overstuffed couch. It was escape time.
Yang didn't like her reading these things, but Blake was fine with it – so long as nobody else was home, Ruby never saw the harm in it. These were much better stories than her old comics, leagues better in some cases. This particular volume was from one of those series with a huge run-on sentence for a title, a trend that seemed to be hitting its peak right now; the shelves at the store were loaded with titles like this. It was more than a little ridiculous.
However, what mattered was the story. This one was an isekai, her current favorite genre.
Her current world was indeed tremendously boring; Ruby's mind was often filled to the brim with fantastic ideas of what might be out there, just beyond the veil that separated one reality from another. Was there a world of magic somewhere? Super-advanced technology? Awesome secret agents playing with the fates of entire nations? Or maybe there was a world full of people with untapped psychic powers? A world of monsters, and hunters who train all their lives to fight them? Was there a world filled with furries? The possibilities were as endless as a person's imagination, and Ruby had plenty of that to spare.
Reality, on the other hand, was annoyingly finite. Here she was, less than a month before becoming a legal adult, Ruby-freaking-Rose working at Whata-freaking-burger part time in order to help with the freaking rent so she can stay with her freaking sister and her freaking friends, all so she can save up for her own freaking car and get the freak out of this freaking ho-dunk little bore-hole of a freaking TOWN!
No she didn't have anger issues, why do you ask?
Ruby closed her book after what felt like only a few minutes, weary of her own thoughts, and stood up and stretched. A quick look at the clock and a sniff of one armpit led her to the conclusion that a bath was in her very near future. Not that the ol' fast-food kitchen staff would give a crap if she was clean or not, but it still mattered.
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…
Several minutes later, Ruby was nicely settled into some steaming hot bathwater, calmly pushing the bubbles around. And wishing for a rubber ducky.
Various thoughts bubbled within her brain as well, mostly about what sat just beneath the water's surface; at nearly 18, Ruby wasn't anywhere near as developed as Yang was even at 16. It wasn't fair. But on the bright side, she'd finally started growing in the chest area. In fact, now that she'd reached the next size up, Weiss was willing to give Ruby a bunch of her old bras so they wouldn't have to buy a whole bunch of new ones. And they were nice bras, too. Weiss was not one to buy cheap underwear.
And no, b-cups were nothing to be ashamed of. Sure they weren't as… perky as Blake's. Or as bouncy as Yang's double-Ds. But they were still nice, dammit. She scratched at her stomach just beneath the boobs, wincing at the softness; Dad had gifted her a gym membership after graduation (at her request) only for the one gym in town to close down a week later. Just her luck. Might be time to invest in some kind of exercise equipment for her room to start shaving off the inches.
Ruby sighed deeply as she gazed at her reflection in the water. Brilliant silver eyes stared back at her, unique among everyone she had ever met, glistening beneath a mop of almost-black hair and a complexion that still stank of awkward teenager. No sound met her ears aside from her own breathing, a clear reminder of her current solitude. As well as, alarmingly, a constant reminder of the most likely future which lay ahead of her.
Ruby had never had a boyfriend. Or girlfriend. There was one guy in high school she was a bit sweet on, but much like her other life choices, she never got up the nerve to say anything and her best chance of happiness slipped right through her fingers. It had only been a few months but it already felt like years. Wonder how he's doing? Probably got a six-figure job in the city somewhere, married to some supermodel and living in a mansion somewhere out west. Dammit… why couldn't she just be isekai'd already? This world sucks!
"I wish something cool would happen…" Ruby muttered out loud to nobody.
The bathwater suddenly turned cloudy. And bubbly.
In fact, it felt like it was starting to boil.
Ruby jumped back in a panic, instinctively watching for a clawed hand emerging from the water or, more realistically, checking the drain area to see if something had gone catastrophically wrong with the pipes… but the angry fizzing was coming from the center of the tub.
All at once, Ruby's bath exploded.
Water and suds were blasted up and outward, loudly hitting the walls and ceiling from the sheer force of whatever happened. Coughing, Ruby was blinded for more than a few seconds as her mind raced to catch up with this predicament – did someone hide a literal bomb under her tub? Who would do that?! Aside from Yang, anyway-
"Well hey there, sexy…"
Ruby froze stiff.
The voice belonged to a female, that much was certain… but no more. A stranger had appeared. In her bathtub. With her. Out of thin air. In a blast of water.
Gettin' some Yabuki Kentaro flashbacks here…
Finally getting the last of the soap out of her eyes, a naked and very vulnerable Ruby Rose looked up to find… herself… sitting across from her. Also naked and smiling exactly the same as Ruby herself, at least when she was in a good mood. Unlike now.
"You ever just sit on a drain cover? It's not comfy, let me tell ya," said her exact clone. Her smile never faltered, but she shifted awkwardly on her butt.
"GAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Panic sent Ruby up and out of the tub in a heartbeat, while sheer muscle memory forced her to grab a towel on the way out, and thankfully the tile floors held firm; slipping now would've probably knocked her out cold. She scrambled back into her bedroom and locked the door, clutching her towel to her chest like her life depended on it, as she tried to catch her breath and process… whatever the hell that was.
Someone had appeared out of nowhere, bursting in right in the middle of her bath. Ignoring how the stranger looked like her, the plain fact was that there was an intruder in the house. And there was only one thing to do about that, right? Ruby glanced over at her phone, ready to make a three-digit call-
-Just in time to see a hole appear in the air right next to the phone, a hand reach through that hole and grab it, and the hole close back up.
"…"
I'm sorry, Ruby is unavailable right now, please leave your name and number and she'll get back to you as soon as reality unbends itself.
The stranger's voice echoed through the closed door, "If you want this back, you'll have to come and get it.~"
Hearing it again, Ruby suddenly realized that it was more than familiar… it was her own voice. The stranger was… her. For all intents and purposes, Ruby's reflection had come to life and crashed her private time.
"Oh, but do get dressed first. I'm in no hurry."
But this stranger could also… apparently… open wormholes in space just to steal her smartphone. Almost like she knew Ruby was about to call the cops.
"This is not the cool thing I wanted…" Ruby whined. "Not at all…"
…
…
Exactly 10 minutes later, Ruby Rose stood dry and dressed in her work uniform (breaking her previous record of 15 minutes to get ready) as her duplicate lounged on their couch. Like she owned the damn place.
The lookalike was also dressed now, though where and how she obtained her clothing was anybody's guess (were those wormholes to blame?). She had on an eclectic ensemble of flowing pants and sleeves that didn't seem connected anywhere. It looked a bit like the outfit of a genie from a storybook, giving her an air of mystique that absolutely did not belong with Ruby's dorky face.
"There's no need to glare at me like that," said the lookalike.
Ruby stood glaring anyway, arms crossed. "You saw me naked."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"A bad- Wh-wh-what… what planet are you from?! Who the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?"
"I am Zoh."
Ruby made two long, slow blinks. "…Zoh?"
"Is there an echo in here?" The woman with the same face as Ruby floated up off the couch and walked forward; Ruby quickly flinched back, hands guarding her chest. The woman scoffed, "Relax babe, I'm not gonna hurt one of my reflections."
Another blink. "Reflections?"
"There's that echo again. Yes, a reflection. That's what you are, Ruby Rose… the reflection of a goddess.~"
Ruby's expression went flat. "You lost me."
Zoh sauntered past her and into the kitchen, face beaming as she looked around the room. "I live in the next realm over. Things were getting a bit too loud over there so I thought I'd esca- er, drop in here and have a little quiet time."
"You dropped in on my bath."
Zoh finally let her grin slip, "…Would you believe that was an accident?"
"I believe I've had enough of this. Start making sense before I do something drastic."
"Hey, I'm the goddess here. I don't gotta explain shit."
"…"
"Oh yeah, here's your doohickey back," Zoh finally handed over Ruby's phone, then glided past her again and settled back down into the couch cushions.
Ruby checked to make sure the device still worked normally, pocketed it and went right back to glaring.
"You just gonna stare at me all day? I thought you had somewhere to be…?"
It was only then that Ruby remembered she already had her uniform on. At least there was still time to take care of this little problem before her shift officially started. "I'm not leaving with a stranger in the house. Yang would crucify me."
"I already said I'm not a stranger, I'm a goddess."
"And I'm the queen of Scotland," Ruby growled without moving a step. "I don't care what you think you are, I care that you're tres-"
Zoh motioned to her left and another miniature wormhole opened. She reached in, rummaged for a moment, then pulled one of Yang's hard lemonades from the hole. A cold one. From inside the fridge.
"-passing. How the heck did you do that?"
"It's my divine power, dear child. I can open portals to anywhere my heart desires."
"Portals?" An idea formed in Ruby's mind and jumped out her mouth before she could stop it, "You can take me away from here?"
Zoh gave a slow blink this time. "Oh no no no, silly girl. That would upset the cosmic balance."
"Don't give me that bullshit. You're a goddess, aren't you?"
"That's what I've been saying, yes-"
"Then get me out of here. Isekai me."
"Ise- what?"
"Isekai! Another world! A fantasy land where I can get a harem and OP god mode cheat powers! C'mon, pleeeeeeease?"
Zoh's silver eyes glazed over as small buffering symbol actually appeared on her forehead. After a moment she stood up and muttered, "I'm starting to think it was a mistake to come here…"
"You saw me naked. You owe me."
"That is hardly a fair trade-"
"If you're not gonna take me away then get out of my house!"
"You are in no position to make demands!"
"AAArrgGGH!" Ruby finally took a swing, no longer caring if this person was any kind of goddess or not.
Zoh effortlessly opened a portal right under Ruby's feet. Gravity did the rest. Ruby fell with a scream, only to suddenly jerk backwards and land flat in the center of the living room; she'd been sent falling at a perfect 90 degree angle, into the floor and out of a vertical wormhole just above it. She lay on the carpet, stunned.
"Care to try again?" said Zoh from somewhere above her.
Before Ruby could form a reply, the so-called goddess of the Next Realm Over gave a snort… followed by a suppressed sneeze.
One of the many shampoo bottles in the bathroom suddenly jumped out of a hole in midair, clattering to the floor of the living room. Ruby stared at it.
"What…" Zoh was holding her nose, "What is that smell? What are you wearing, paint thinner?"
Ruby stood up with a grunt and said, "For your information, that's my body spray. I work in a place that reeks, and this helps me survive the night. Picked up the habit in the school locker room a few years ago."
"You should reconsider your life choices," Zoh spoke carefully, and Ruby could see her eyes turning red.
Sensing an opportunity, Ruby moved quickly – she kept the spray can in her pocket, and with practiced ease she whipped it out and formed a cloud of powerful fragrance around the head of the suffering divine.
"Either isekai me or get the hell outta here, I don't care which… but you might wanna pick soon.~"
Silver eyes grew wide with alarm as Zoh tried to back away while holding her nose. "You… you don't know… what you're doing…" she choked, sputtered, "I can't… control… Hah-CHOO!"
The ground vibrated for a second as Ruby suddenly realized her mistake.
"Hah-CHOO!"
If the shampoo bottle was any indication, Zoh's portals were not fully under control when her allergies acted up.
"Hah-CHOO! Hah-CHOO!"
Ruby had no problem being portaled out of here on her own, but if the house went with her, Weiss would have kittens. And Yang would probably self-combust.
"Hah-CHOO! Hah-CHOO! Hah… hah… HAH-CHOOOOOO!"
At the final sneeze, the ground gave a hard lurch and Ruby grabbed hold of a wall, ready for the worst. Zoh was on her hands and knees, snot running down her face, also waiting.
"…"
"…"
Nothing else happened. The house remained in its proper dimensional state.
"I should transport your internal organs across the galaxy for that," Zoh groaned, then used part of her flowy outfit to wipe her face. She stood back up and tried to recompose herself, but the red, watery eyes ruined the image. "For now… I'll let this slide. Provided you never mention this to anyone."
"Who the heck would I tell? They'd toss me in a padded cell for the rest of my life."
"Good."
Zoh said something else, but it was too low to make out. She seemed worried about something.
"Now then…" Zoh sniffed loudly, wiped her face again and huffed, "Try not to cause any more trouble, child. Your actions reflect back on me, you know."
"Blow it out your ear."
Zoh spared one last angry look before opening one final portal and disappearing into it. Gone.
Along with any and all trace of the good mood Ruby had built up over the last few hours.
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…
Ruby rode most of the way to work grumbling, angry at herself and the unfair world she remained stuck in. The so-called goddess said Ruby was just a reflection, but who cared anymore? So what if an exact lookalike showed up out of thin air? So what if Ruby had fallen through a scientific impossibility?
"It was just a daydream," she said out loud to nobody. "Just a hallucination. Just sat in the bath too long-"
The bath.
She forgot to drain the goddamn tub. AND she never bothered to clean up the water after her bath exploded, so the entire bathroom was still sopping wet.
Ruby groaned as she leaned against the handlebars of her bike, waiting on the crossing signal. Stupid memory. It's gonna take hours to clean off the mildew by the time her shift is over.
The signal finally changed. Ruby walked her bike across the road, squinting in the evening light as she glanced down a side road towards the old gas station, considering if she might wanna stop and grab a Mountain Dew or something.
Or at least, where the gas station was supposed to be. The building before her was new, and the sign over the massive display window read 'From Dust Til Dawn.'
Huh… where'd that come from?
Ruby looked back down the road, blinked, then turned back to look at the new store again and blue-screened; the gas station was still there, like it had never left.
"… … …Nope," Ruby declared to the sky, "Screw it, I am not dealing with that."
Ruby shook her head to get back into the mindset of work, leaned on the pedals and took off down the sidewalk. She put all thoughts of wormholes, goddesses and isekais as far out of her head as possible. There was a time and place for such things, and that list did not include working with hot grease.
Had she looked behind her, Ruby might have noticed a small black drone floating in the sky. What would have stood out was the fact that it floated without propellers. It hummed faintly, small neon-blue bulbs flickering within its black shell.
The drone stared after her with a single red lens, then turned and buzzed away.
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Not too long ago, I reached a point of burnout unlike anything I'd reached before. I was literally moments away from going into my account here and deleting everything because I'd grown to hate all of it. I just… I had to step away for a bit. If you've had depression in any form, you'll know what kind of crap I was going through.
All of my current projects are still on hold (NOT canceled), but I decided to start up this new story in an attempt to find and recapture the thing that made this hobby enjoyable in the first place. I'm looking to rediscover the spark, if you will. My perfectionistic nature is not something I can easily move past, but I'm hoping this is the first step towards doing exactly that. I'll never keep moving forward otherwise.
If you enjoyed this little diversion, by all means drop a review and tell me (but please do me and my editor a favor and DON'T compare this with the original DMI, that's not the point here). In the next chapter we'll meet the first of the alternate Rubys and see what kind of a mess our heroines are gonna have to clean up. Hope you stick around!
=^..^=