The decline of Iris's clothes

Exhausted, Iris woke up. The simple feel of the improvised bedsheets against her skin immediately drove home the fact that this situation was more than a bad dream. She could feel the fabric, sheets taken from who-knows-where in this mirror world and laid out for her, strange materials wrapping around her bare legs and around her back and hugged up against her chest.

Slowly, Iris stirred, hyperaware of how every stitch seemed to drag against her body as she sat up. She looked around the new room, properly taking it in for the first time.

The room itself was nothing special, something that might have been an office in the real world - it was just that it was totally new to her. She was in a strange building, she'd spent the night in a strange room, in a world with one other person in, and she was stark naked.

Iris shifted. Slowly, she stepped out of her bed, holding the sheets against her body with one hand; she didn't expect Eva to surprise burst-in again, but she couldn't help but be a little wary in her current situation. Her clothes were still on the floor next to her.

Letting the sheet fall until it only lay over her lap, Iris reached for her outfit. She eyed it uncertainly.

She remembered what Eva said - every rip and tear would be permanent in this place. There was no walking down to a shop to get a replacement, no Amazon, as far as clothes went this was literally all she had for as long as she was trapped here.

A long jacket that went down as far as her knees, tight pants, a V-neck top with elbow-length sleeves, all black for her sneaking around. And then, below that, her underwear, a navy bra with some black lace and black straps, with similarly matching panties - they weren't the most overtly sexy things she owned by any means, but they definitely weren't exactly plain. (The adrenaline rush from her investigations did sometimes mean she got a bit of use out of halfway-to-lingerie underwear in the aftermath, she just wished she'd considered the possibility of being trapped in it).

It was all in good condition for now, even if she didn't know how many days it would last. More slowly than usual, Iris got dressed, slipping on each item of clothing with perhaps excessive care. She slipped her earrings back in, and fastened her necklace around her neck (not wanting to just leave them on the floor), and headed out.

Finding her way back to the main room again wasn't hard. She had no idea where Eva was, and didn't have much in the way of a plan for what to do yet, but nevertheless she felt drawn to the mirror she'd been sucked into this place through.

Yesterday, it had flickered; it had shown fragments of the real world through, pieces beyond just the lab she'd been in when she'd ended up here. Iris wasn't sure what she was looking for. Maybe she wanted to see that the team had realized they had an imposter in their midst, confirmation that they were working on a way to help her.

Right now, it was doing nothing. Iris stared at her reflection.

Days in the mirrorverse rather soon took on a pattern. Iris would wake up, look at the state of her clothes, and find her way to the main room. She'd stare longing at the mirror, making a mental list of various mad ideas that could help them get out. Eva would arrive eventually, shoot down most of her ideas, find faults in the rest, and help her put into action whatever remained as it inevitably failed. She seemed to do it more to fill time than because she genuinely thought any of it would work.

Sometimes, Iris would catch glimpses of the real world, see her double effortlessly fitting in with the team, and want to get out even more.

And eventually she'd strip down and go to sleep - and unbeknownst to her, sometimes in the middle of the night, Eva would tiptoe into her room and make her way to the few clothes Iris had.

The way tools worked in the mirrorverse was a little strange; as it was the dimension was a little bit... off. Man-made objects, like the building, still existed there, but a lot of stray items didn't. Clothes didn't float around wherever their real-world counterparts were being walked in, animals and people weren't copied at all - the lab still had power, and some books were there, if reflected, but the offices weren't exactly lived-in.

It was like half a snapshot. The items in each office weren't rearranged as soon as the real world was, but they did reflect how that real office had been at some point, to some extent. Eva had been there a while, and still didn't fully understand all of it - she did, however, have the advantage of being able to pluck in anything left sufficiently close to a mirror in the real world.

Like a needle, to quietly kneel with, and pick away at stray stitches in Iris's clothes. She wanted it to seem like natural decay.

Yes, she could see Iris's mirror duplicate nude whenever she wanted (and sometimes did), but it wasn't the same - she couldn't keep the duplicate in view constantly, otherwise she'd be getting in the way of the mission. And suddenly, for her, seeing Iris nude was as important to her as escaping this dimension.

If nothing else, it filled the time while she waited. It did seem to be a little more than that though.

She poked holes in the crotch of Iris's panties, and tugged at a few stitches. On the third night, a small hole started to open up. Iris's bra fared about as well, one shoulder strap starting to strain and split, as well as the hooks at the back starting to straighten out to make getting it on a hassle.

Eva wasn't sure what to do about the jacket - it was a lot bulkier than the rest, but she could delay getting to that for the time being. Working out subtle ways to damage it would take time, and she only had a few minutes she was willing to risk in case she accidentally woke Iris up and was caught.

Iris's shirt was easy. There were already signs of strain from overuse around the neck, tiny holes she could pick at at the upper and lower hems that spread quickly as the garment lost integrity. Pants were a cliche too, the join down the middle one that it was easy to make tear, and have spread.

She liked seeing the progress of the damage each night - Iris just wearing the clothes throughout the day extended all the harm she'd done. She could see Iris become just that little bit more flustered, just that little bit jumpier.

Patient, Eva waited, trembling - sometimes paying a visit to the mirror to see Iris's double when the anticipation grew too much.

Iris had been trapped beyond the mirror for a little more than a week. She awoke, stood up, and still kept the sheet around her as she slipped off the bed to look at her clothes despairingly.

She remembered what Eva said about damage. She didn't know if it was bad luck or constant use, but she had hoped the damage wouldn't build up quite so fast.

First, she lifted up her panties. Yes, a hole had started growing in them, but that had extended over night to apparently snap the hems - now it resembled a belt more than underwear, trapeziums of fabric dangling uselessly below it. Sighing, Iris put it aside.

Her bra was next. One of the straps was gone - in of itself, she might have tried to keep using it, even if it offered less support, but the clasp was getting nigh-impossible to use. One of the catches had snapped clean off. Reluctantly, Iris put it aside.

Underwear wasn't her biggest concern, at least. Doing without was... it was something she was always aware of, the little bit of friction and rubbing that she could never quite put aside, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't tried it once or twice, but it certainly wasn't her preference. Still, it wasn't quite indecent. Similarly, she'd been less concerned about throwing her socks away when they'd become far too hole-filled.

Which left the rest of her clothes. She gingerly lifted up her, shirt, taking extra care as she pulled it on; it was starting to fray more, with a gap that went most of the way up one side, revealing a sudden streak of dark skin, and with damage that made her afraid the hems were going to come away in her hands every time she pulled it on or off. Still, it did mostly cover her breasts, the patchy holes below the V not withstanding.

Her pants were more awkward. She did what she could, but the growing hole in the crotch did, from some angles, make it rather clear she was forgoing panties. Iris swallowed.

Then she looked at her jacket, and faltered.

She didn't want to go nude like Eva was. Definitely not. The idea of spending weeks, or months, or the years Eva had been here without a scrap of clothing made her cheeks burn. She definitely wanted the modesty her long jacket offered.

At the same time, she did believe she was going to get out of here, and when that happened she definitely didn't want nothing on then. For all she knew, rescue would mean coming out in the lab she'd come in through - and didn't know how Eva would fare ending up nude in an office building, but Iris definitely didn't want to journey home from there through the foyer and streets and crowds with nothing on.

Her heart pounded in her chest at the thought of that being part of her escape. No. Maybe not.

Which meant she needed something to wear that was kept safe. She looked at her jacket again - if she did it up tight and held it closed, it would cover most of her body from her knees up. She'd be very aware of her near-nudity, but no one else would be. Not ideal, but...

Iris looked down at herself and her tattered clothing. She certainly didn't want it to end up in the same situation.

She put her shoes to one side, and carefully folded up her jacket and laid it over the top. There. Safe. Something to fall back on.

Iris straightened, and turned around to face the door. She took a deep breath, and started to walk out.

Suddenly she was aware of everything. How her thighs rubbed together which each step, how her breasts shifted with each motion she made, how cold the bare floor was against her feet; everything seemed to want to remind her how perilously frail her clothing was becoming.

That day, Eva was in the main room before she was - maybe Iris had taken longer getting up. Iris smiled nervously as the woman she thought of as a friend turned to spot her; Eva's eyes widened for a moment, though she quickly schooled her expression in what Iris assumed was an attempt to not make her feel too self-conscious.

It didn't particularly work, but it was the thought that counted. Iris crossed her arms, flustered.

"Hey," Iris said. "Thought I'd leave my jacket to the side. Like you said, want to keep something in good condition for when we get out."

"Right," Eva said. She stammered. "It's the... first time I've seen you without it."

Eva's eyes went to Iris's side, to the streak of flesh visible behind the tear, more being revealed as the loose flaps of Iris's shirt moved as she walked. Iris quickly patted the torn fabric back, keeping it from flaring up too much, and making the tattered fabric press more tightly against her body, better revealing the outline of her nipples.

Eva's gaze flickered inwards; suddenly she was the one flushing.

"I'm... not quite ready to go the way you do," Iris said, diplomatically. "Nothing personal."

"I understand. Though looks like you should think about giving up on those," Eva said.

"Oh, don't remind me," Iris said.

She took a step forwards again; Eva's eyes flickered down, catching glimpse of a flash of brown skin though the growing hole in her pants. Iris shifted position, holding one leg in front of the other, too-late hiding her lack of panties.

"Say," Eva said. "It's been... tiring going at this all week."

"I'm not giving up," Iris said.

"I know. Just... a breather," Eva said. "Come back fresh tomorrow. You haven't seen much of this dimension."

"I thought you hated it here?"

"It gets boring after six years," Eva said. "Constricting. But you're new. It was... interesting seeing the city like this, for a few weeks. You should see it. Come back to working on... all this after."

Iris hesitated. Eva was right - it did get tiring, doing nothing but combing through the technobabble. And one day might not make too much difference, with how little progress she'd made.

A break might be nice. See more than just the limited walls of this one building, and the tormenting visions of her duplicate in her life.

"Sure," Iris said. "Could be interesting."