[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/rFsVPbQ.png [/img][/center][center][h2][b]The Mandela Effect: Part 12[/b][/h2][/center] [center][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5099425]Previously On Create-A-Hero[/url][/b][/center] [center][b]"90's" Aubrey Adkins[/b] | [b]Will Grant[/b][/center] [center][b]Pacific Point, CA[/b][/center] Will sighed. How could that night have gone so wrong? It had all started long before he and Aubrey had been chasing after the bird lady, who had first mistaken Aubrey as the villainess, Black Widow and then fled the scene. Deep down, Will knew something was up as this pursuit turned into a wild goose chase, but he did not want to say anything. Eventually, Aubrey pointed towards an old, abandoned warehouse and claimed she thought she saw the bird lady duck inside. Whether because Will was getting tired because of how late it was or Aubrey had promised that they would head back home once they had checked out this last building, Will just followed along. After the two of them had scoped out the place, they found one of the windows, just large enough for a person to fit through, had its glass knocked out if. Aubrey insisted that Will take a quick look inside, as she claimed that her spider half could not fit through the window. Despite knowing that a spider’s abdomen was far more malleable than the rest of its exoskeleton, Will nonetheless stepped into the window to do a quick scan, just so they could head back home. And that’s when he was shoved from behind. He was shocked when he discovered that a giant, spider web had been spun inside the factory. Just like a cat, Will landed safely on all fours. Although the web seemed stable enough to Will, due to its malleability and slanted angle, Will still had difficulties standing upright. Therefore, he would have to crawl to move around on the web. Because this web did not have many blemishes and imperfections, Will surmised that Aubrey must have planned this. In her current over-caffeinated state, there would have been far more holes and irregularities in the web if this were a whim of the moment. He was kicking himself for not trying harder to convince her to head home. He was just too much of a push over. “Aubrey?” Will called out, “We should be heading home.” There was no response. As the factory had been long abandoned, none of the lights inside were working. Besides the faint glow of the streetlights outside and the occasional passing-by automobile, the inside was shrouded in darkness. The little light that did reach inside gleamed off of the silky strands that composed the web Will was stuck in. Will took a deep breath and sighed. He then felt a sudden vibration from the web, originating from behind him. He immediately spun himself around to face in the direction of the vibration. As he squinted his eyes, he saw the silhouette of a giant spider crawling towards him. Once the spider had approached a little further towards Will, he recognized who it was from the human torso grafted to the spider body and he therefore lowered his guard. “Aubrey?” She gave no response. Instead, he saw her doff her bomber jacket and tossed it to the side. She then lay down on the web, reclining on her side. She patted a spot on the web just a foot away from her, as if she were indicating to Will to take a seat next to her. It took a moment for everything to register in Will’s head, but he finally crawled over and took a seat next to Aubrey. [color=b22222]“This has been an [i]amazing[/i] night, Will,”[/color] Aubrey finally spoke while she pulled off her mask. [color=b22222]“But do you know what would make even better?”[/color] “What?” Aubrey then lurched up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. With one swift motion, she pulled off his mask and planted a kiss on his lips. At first, he was surprised by Aubrey’s sudden movement, but once the initial shock wore off, his hands instinctively found their way to her hips, or at least what should have been her hips, considering her drider physique. For a few more seconds, they continued to kiss. Yet when Will realized what he was doing, he abruptly broke it off. “This isn’t right,” Will finally admitted. [color=b22222]“What’s wrong?”[/color] “I can’t cheat on [i]her[/i]!” [color=b22222]“But didn’t you say that I [i]am[/i] her? I just look and think differently from her.”[/color] “Of course, but it feels wrong. I don’t know how I could ever look her in the eyes again if I—” Will paused for a moment, almost as if he could not muster the courage to say it. “If I did [b][i]this![/i][/b].” After Will voiced his protests, tears began to pour from Aubrey’s eyes. This turn of events caught Will by surprise, as he did not believe she would break into tears after he had rejected her advances. “Was it something I said?” Will tried to uncover what had caused this outburst of tears. [color=b22222]“Yes,”[/color] she finally replied, temporarily putting a stop to the waterworks. “Hey, this isn’t a you problem. This is a me problem. I just don’t think I could live with myself knowing that I screwed my girlfriend without her knowing.” [color=b22222]“That’s not it.”[/color] “Then what is?” [color=b22222]“It was when you explained your Aubrey’s situation. There’s no magical portal with which we could crossover into our home realities. There’s no mind swapping machine that will return us to our proper bodies. Do you know what that means for me?”[/color] “What?” [color=b22222]“Whenever you will restore [i]your[/i] Aubrey, I’ll be erased from existence!”[/color] “Aubrey—" [color=b22222]“I mean, am I even real or is my persona based on false memories that make me think I’m a different version of your girlfriend.”[/color] “I—I haven’t thought of this in that way. I—" [color=b22222]“The irony. Ever since I received my powers, I thought I was invincible. Yet, once this realization had dawned upon me, that I don’t have much time left to exist, it caused this paralyzing fear to penetrate my entire core. I don’t want to go out without spending one last special moment with you.”[/color] As Aubrey was speaking, she had been slowly closing the gap between her face and Will’s, as if she were intending to kiss him again. She had also been running her hand up the inside of his thigh. Yet, when she was mere inches from his lips, she pulled her head and hand away from his body. [color=b22222]“Yet, you’re right that I should try to see things from [i]your[/i] Aubrey’s view. I don’t know how I would feel if [i]my[/i] Will’s first time was with an Aubrey from a parallel universe. I feel so conflicted.”[/color] The waterworks began once again after Aubrey had finished speaking. Seeing that her inner conflict was eating away at her, Will inched toward her and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace. “Aubrey—" [color=b22222]“If you don’t want to have sex, I’ll respect your wishes. But—”[/color] When she looked up into Will’s eyes, he saw how her tears had reddened her eyes. He just could not resist the puppy-dog eyes she was giving him. He then used his hand to rotate her head towards him and held his lips just inches away from hers. Aubrey, in turn, pressed her lips against his and held the kiss for a few seconds before they parted. “Okay,” he whispered into her ear. [color=b22222]“Are you sure?”[/color] He paused for a moment before he confirmed his decision again. Aubrey could tell that his hesitation signaled that he was not one hundred percent sure about this decision. She wanted to reiterate the way out she had offered just seconds ago. However, she, too, was conflicted inside. She so wanted to go through with this. Yet she didn’t want to force Will into doing anything he did not really want to do. Once they had come to an agreement, they tried to pull off each other’s shirts. Yet, when they realized that they were trying to do this at the same time and, as a result, were getting in each other’s way, they each paused and gave off a short, awkward laugh. [color=b22222]“I’ll go first,”[/color] Aubrey took the initiative and volunteered. [color=b22222]“This top had been giving you a sneak peek all night. It’s only fair.”[/color] With this decided, the two of them tugged on the bottom of Aubrey’s top and pulled up. After they had pulled the top over her head and past her full locks of hair, Aubrey proudly displayed the highly-ornate, spider web pattern bra that had already been partially visible through the spider-shaped cutout on the front of her 90’s era costume. Then it was Will’s turn. He fidgeted a bit as his girlfriend helped pull off the skintight top of his costume, as he was not used to this sort of attention. [color=b22222]“Could you help unzipping the back of my costume on my abdomen?”[/color] Aubrey asked as she reached back for the hooks on her bra. Will, on the other hand, gave a puzzled look as he glanced back and forth between her face and her arachnid abdomen. He took a deep breath before answering to calm his nerves. “Alright.” He crawled over on the web. Once he was positioned next to her abdomen, he found the zipper at the base of where her back transitioned into her cephelothorax. “Wait, how do you usually get into this?” Will asked as he realized that the zipper would have been out of Aubrey’s normal reach when entirely unzipped. [color=b22222]“Oh, you have no idea how much it sucked getting into this for the first time,”[/color] Aubrey answered as she looked over her shoulders. She had already pulled off the straps of her bra over her shoulders and discarded it. [color=b22222]“I don’t know what I would do without my power nullifier being able to almost instantaneously swap me into my costume.”[/color] After hearing her answer, Will turned his attention back to the zipper. Once he had passed over her cephelothorax, he pressed his hand against her abdomen to help him continue to unzip the costume. Her abdomen had a weird consistency that lay somewhere between firm and malleable. “You need help getting out of the rest of this?” [color=b22222]“I’ve got this,”[/color] Aubrey stated as she flipped herself on her back. She curled up her eight arachnid legs and tugged up on the fabric that rested on the underbelly of her cephelothorax. Because they had loosened her costume by unzipping its back, there was enough slack to allow Aubrey to get at least one pair of her curled legs underneath the fabric. With each leg underneath, it made it that much easier to pull her other legs inside. Once all eight legs had been withdrawn under the fabric of her costume, she began to straighten out her legs slowly and repeatedly. With each push, she made progress towards removing this portion of her costume. Eventually, her legs were entirely free and she easily used them to toss off the remaining fabric on her abdomen to the side. [color=b22222]“So, what do you think?”[/color] Aubrey asked as she rolled onto her side. “Interesting,” Will replied, “you took off your costume just like a spider would remove its exoskeleton during molting.” [color=b22222]“You’re such a nerd,”[/color] Aubrey rolled her eyes before shooting a webline from her wrists at her boyfriend and dragging Will towards her. [color=b22222]“But that’s why I love you.”[/color] Will was taken by surprise by Aubrey’s move, partially because he was nerding out about his knowledge about spiders, and partially because he just was not expecting it. Before he knew it, his body was smashed up against hers. [color=b22222]“Ready?”[/color] She whispered into his ear while she slowly wrapped her arachnid legs around his body. Will’s heart raced as he gazed into his girlfriend’s eyes. His hands awkwardly ran up and down her body. Despite the numerous physical differences between [i]his[/i] Aubrey and this one, her face looked identical, as if he was looking at a split image of hers. Yet, as he peered at such a familiar face, the guilt that had initially warned him not to do this crept back into his head. “I can’t do this,” Will suddenly blurted out before wiggling his way out of Aubrey’s eight-legged embrace. [color=b22222]“I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard,”[/color] Aubrey admitted in response as she wrapped her arms around her chest and pivoted her human half towards Will. “What the hell was I thinking?” [color=b22222]“Will, you can’t be so hard on yourself. These are extraordinary circumstances!”[/color] “Yet I still feel like an utter trash boyfriend.” [color=b22222]“Then will you at least let me rest in your arms, if this will be our last night together,”[/color] Aubrey requested as she patted the web stranded beside her. Will paused for a moment as his mind debated whether doing so would betray the relationship he had with [i]his[/i] Aubrey. Eventually, he crawled back over to her. Once he was reclined on the web, Aubrey rolled on her side and rested her head against Will's torso. He, in turn, wrapped his arms around her body. [color=b22222]“If the relationship you have with your Aubrey is anything like the one I have with my Will, I know she truly loves you.”[/color] Although he knew that she was trying to make him feel better, her words merely fanned the flames of his guilt.