Dedonus

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

The Mandela Effect: Part 10

"90's" Aubrey Adkins | Will Grant

Pacific Point, CA

Aubrey splashed a handful of water into her face. She did not know whether she was trying to snap herself out of her sleepy grogginess or out of the bizarre dreams she had experienced the past night. When she looked up at the mirror, she saw the water running down her face, along with her long locks of blonde hair that were curling around her head in every direction. How much caffeine did she have last night? Was what she saw in her dream some sort of caffeine-induced nightmare? But why did the lives of those other Aubreys feel so real?

She filled her palms again with water and splashed her face again. After Aubrey wiped down her face with a hand towel, she turned her attention to taming her hair. She first ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it back into one, long ponytail. Then, with one hand holding the ponytail together, Aubrey transferred scrunchie from wrist onto her hair with her free hand. Her hair still looked like a mess, but she could fix it later.

Once Aubrey was through with fixing her hair and trying to snap herself out of the haze of just waking up, she exited to the bathroom and headed towards the kitchen, although fitting through the doorway with her arachnid physique was not simple task, as the frame was not designed with her frame in mind. She managed it, but it was not as simple as walking through the threshold.

When she opened the refrigerator door and reached in for some orange juice, she paused when she noticed that there was a six pack of bottled pop sitting inside the refrigerator. For a moment, Aubrey was befuddled by the presence of these drinks, as she knew that she was all out of the caffeinated beverage when she checked earlier that morning. But she soon jumped to a relatively safe conclusion: Will must have picked some up from the store while he was out, as she did not see him on the couch when she had gotten up in the middle of the night a few hours ago.

Aubrey then reached towards the six pack and pulled one of the bottles off from the plastic that held the six containers together as a unit. While she twisted the bottle cap on her beverage, she then turned to view the couch to see if her boyfriend had finally returned.

And indeed, he was there, sprawled out over the couch with a single blanket covering his body. However, Aubrey also noticed that Will was wearing a certain scarlet and gray costume, minus the mask, a costume that she recognized from the news report she had seen on her phone just a few hours ago. Plus, now that she had seen in close up, the costume did look awfully similar to hers in design. It was just a bit more modest than her own costume, but that made sense because of the sort of guy Will was.

For a moment, a thought crept into Aubrey’s head: was Will wearing this costume a sign that this place’s Aubrey knew about his alter-ego?

Wait, I’m the real Aubrey. She thought as she realized this internal contradiction. She knew for sure that her Will was just a regular person, no powers and all. Yet the news reports and the costume he was wearing said otherwise. But Will had the worse poker face in the world. There was no way he could have hidden anything this ground shaking from her.

As her head ached with these inconsistencies in her memories, Aubrey drew the curtains back just enough to let some light into her living room, but not enough where he drider physique would be visible from outside. As the small sliver of light rushed into the room and struck her sleeping boyfriend, Aubrey heard his rustling from his slumber.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Aubrey greeted Will as she leaned over the back of the couch. “Looks like you had a busy night.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Will groggily replied while he was attempting to wake up. He clutched his forehead and began to rub it, as if it would somehow help wake him up.

“You want to talk about it?”

“Actually, we do have something we need to talk about,” he answered as he began to sit up. “You might want to take a seat.”

A sudden fear crept into the back of her mind. What could he possibly have to say? Possibilities started to fly around in her head. Could he be breaking up with her? No, that’s impossible; she was his dream girl. Something horrible had to have happened for him to want out of their relationship. But what else could he want to talk about?

While these thoughts were running through Aubrey’s mind, Will had sat up and scooted over to the far edge of the couch to allow as much room for Aubrey next to him. In turn, when she noticed there was a spot for her on the couch, Aubrey crawled over the back of the couch and rested her spider-half on the couch’s cushions, draping her right arachnid legs over the couch’s back.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know how to quite say it,” Will began to say as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Just say it.” Aubrey scooted closer towards her boyfriend and placed her hand on his thigh.

“Well, um, the me whom you hung out with yesterday was an alternate version of myself from a parallel universe,” he finally admitted to Aubrey. There was a brief moment of silence before Aubrey broke into laughter. Will, however, still wore a stunned expression on his face.

“I’m so stupid,” Aubrey exclaimed, “I thought you were about ready to break up with me or something.

“Aren’t you at all concerned about the whole parallel reality thing?”

“Will, this is just another Tuesday in the life of a superhero. The bizarre should be expected.”

“I’m not the only one. There’s your friend, Emily. Your teammates, the Immortals. From what I have heard, there are people across the country who have been replaced by a parallel reality doppelganger.”

Teammates? Aubrey thought before images of these so-called teammates flashed before her eyes. She had an inkling that she should know who these people were, but the memories of these events that played out in her head felt like they belonged to someone else. The costumes she was wearing in these memories reminded her of the dream just had last night. Or was it a dream?

“I knew something was up with Emily ever since that Hounds attack,” Aubrey claimed as she tried to hide the distress she was experiencing from these varying memories.

“And although the Immortals have not yet tested you yet, I’m pretty sure you’re also been affected.”

“What makes you think that?” Aubrey asked, although in the back of her mind she knew that there was some truth in his statement.

“Well—” Will replied as he pointed at Aubrey’s shirt, which was the same Super Bowl XLIII t-shirt she had been wearing yesterday. Aubrey, in turn, tilted her head down to see what exactly he was pointing at. Her face immediately blushed when she thought she knew what he meant.

“Well, that would explain why almost none of my bras fit.”

When Will heard what Aubrey had just said, he wore a confused expression on his face. It took a moment for her words to register in his head.

“What? No, that’s not what I mean. Sure, you’re not wrong, but—” Will tried to explain, although he was stumbling over himself because he was flustered, “Anyways—the point is that the Cardinals lost Super Bowl XLIII and, unless you found that shirt in some third world country, there is no way you could possibly have that shirt.

“Well, that also could be an explanation.”

A silence settled into the room, as neither Will nor Aubrey knew what to say once the probable possibility that Aubrey was not herself had been suggested. What were you supposed to say to someone who looked so similar to a loved one, but whom you knew was not them.

“So, is there a portal or something I need to jump through for your Aubrey to come back?” Aubrey finally broke the silence.

“Err—not quite,” Will began to explain in turn. Because he knew what he was going to say was pretty loopy, he took ahold of her hands before continuing. “Technically speaking, you are my Aubrey.”

“But didn’t you say I was a parallel version of your Aubrey?”

“Yes, but—” Will paused as he tried to figure out how best to explain what had been going on. Once he thought he knew how to explain everything, he started speaking again. “You and my Aubrey have not been stranded in each other’s universe. Whoever, or whatever, is causing all of this has somehow made you think and look like a different version of yourself. Your superhero friends have figured out a way to return the minds of effected individuals back to normal, but they’re still trying to figure out how to revert physical changes. Does that make sense?”

Aubrey then sat there in silence, as the revelation that Will had revealed to her was registering in her mind. Was the dream she had last night her mind’s way of cooping with whatever the heck was going on. But which version of herself from that dream, if any, was the one native to this reality? What would happen to her current personality after her original consciousness had been restored? Will said it himself: she would not be magically teleported back to her own reality. Would she just cease to exist? Would she in all intents and purposes die? Although she knew that the right thing to do was to give back the real Aubrey her life, the fear of oblivion paralyzed her.

“Aubrey? Are you okay?” Will’s voice snapped Aubrey out of her deep reflection of her current predicament.

“I’m fine,” Aubrey lied, although her face and voice betrayed her inner feelings.

“Are you sure?”

“You know what. Let’s do something fun tonight,” Aubrey immediately changed the subject of their conversation. This time, she did a far better job repressing her fears.

“Like—what?” Will asked his girlfriend. He suddenly remembered the conversation he had with this version of Aubrey last night. His heart was starting to pound. He just hoped she was thinking about something other than what he promised last night.

“Why don’t we go on patrol tonight? My Will doesn’t have superpowers. I don’t know if this world’s you normally have spider powers, but I think it would be a fun experience. Think of it as a crime-fighting date.”

“Sure. That’s a great idea.” Will answered, giving off an internal sigh of relief. “I only have powers because my parallel-self had them. So this would be something new for me, too.”

“Great! Let’s make it a date.”

She then lifted her arachnid body off the couch and started to walk towards the apartment’s bathroom. However, she stopped after taking a few steps (at least for an eight-legged person) and twisted her torso so she could see her boyfriend.

“Since you’ve been up all night, you can sleep in a little longer.”

“Are you sure?”

“You need to rest up for our little date tonight. Plus, I can keep myself busy until you get your beauty sleep.”

“Alright,” Will reluctantly agreed to Aubrey’s suggestion, “but let me change into my pajamas first.”

“I’ll be in the shower if you need me,” Aubrey told him before continuing into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She then turned the shower knob to warm up the water.

Now that she was isolated from Will and the sound of the water beating against the basin of the water would mask her voice to a degree, Aubrey began to break out into tears. What was she to do? She knew it was wrong to rob Will of his real girlfriend. But how could she sacrifice herself to do justice for him? As these thoughts raced through her head, she unscrewed the cap of the pop bottle that she had been holding onto since she opened up the refrigerator and took a gulp of the caffeinated beverage to took off the edge of the pain she felt.

Her phone then buzzed.

It was this world’s Aubrey’s work. It was their last offer for moving Aubrey’s August photoshoot to today. She stared at the message for a moment before she typed out a quick response. But even when she had finished typing, she did not press the send button, but rather paused for a moment.

Then flashes of the lives of the other Aubrey’s played before her eyes for a second time. One moment, she found herself, in her human form, standing in front of a classroom of high schoolers, with a chalkboard behind her. Everyone, including Aubrey herself, were wearing quite retro clothing, as if it was the 1930’s or 40’s. The United States flag with only 48 stars only confirmed it.

Then Aubrey’s vision became blurred, like dozens of colors and lights swirling around her. When everything came to a standstill, Aubrey found herself posing in front of a photographer. She had her feet dipped into the cool waters of a pool. As Aubrey shifted her pose after each click and flash of the photographer’s camera, she displayed the swimwear that was he new rage of the 60’s: the bikini.

In the final take, the camera’s flash was so bright that it temporarily blinded Aubrey. Once her eyes had finally recovered, she found herself standing in the Lotus, the strip club Aubrey worked at on Nautican Island. The most popular beats of the day were blaring through the air, while neon lights basked the entire club. Aubrey, being on the onlook for any potential customers, wove through the crowd that was focused on the main stage.

“Hey, Rikki. The boss wanted me to remind you that you’re next on the pole,” Aubrey heard a familiar voice say her stage name. Walking towards her was a buxom catgirl. If she was not so white, one might have thought she had been pulled straight out of a really niche manga.

“Thanks Samm—I mean, Kylie,” Aubrey almost let her real first name slip. Before heading over to the main stage, Aubrey handed over the money she had made from the past hour to the bartender for safekeeping in the envelope each girl had reserved for them.

At least, Aubrey found herself gazing into the bathroom mirror. She could once again hear the water running from the shower faucet and could even feel the steam building up. She had no idea what she had just experienced. All she knew was that it was freaking trippy. She first splashed some water from the sink faucet into her face before taking one last swish of her pop. When she peered down at her phone, the message was still there. As there was not a message that alerted her that it was too late to response, Aubrey pressed the send button

How hard could this be? she thought.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

That took way too long to get that post where I wanted to. As the last part of the post suggests, I've had this post in the works since last October. I don't plan using that much time on my next post. ;)

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

The Mandela Effect: Part 9

Odysseus Laërtiades

Pacific Point, CA

Odysseus felt entirely out of place waiting in the lobby of the Pacific Point S.P.A.R.K. facility. Whenever the Immortals needed to deal with this organization, one of Odysseus’ other teammates would have come. But considering the circumstances, Odysseus was the only one available to make the drop-in visit. The Son of Osiris was out of the country in Egypt to resort his mystic powers or whatever magical mumbo jumbo he does. Neither Gajana nor Talus were fit for the task, either. Something strange had happened to them and Odysseus had a feeling that this device that Christopher Arthur had sent might help explain what had happened to them. Firefox, on the other hand, had not responded to Odysseus’ calls. Odysseus almost had tried to reach Arachne, but she specifically requested some personal time. She was going to owe him big time for this.

Even though it was well past midnight, the S.P.A.R.K. facility still had heroes filed in and out of the building. It was not as packed as it usually was during the day, but that was reasonable for the time. Odysseus could not stand seeing these heroes, walking about as if they were playing some kiddie game. He even would have wagered money that many of these rookies had never seen any series action before. None of them knew the burden of fighting the good fight.

“Hey, handsome,” a woman’s voice echoed into Odysseus’ ear.

In his annoyance, Odysseus barely tilted his head to see who was trying to annoy him. There stood a young woman dressed in a magical princess outfit. She wore this stupid grin on her face, as if she expected him to be talkative all of the sudden. She obviously did not know him well.

“Go away,” Odysseus mumbled as he tilted his head back to its upright position.

“Oh, come on! I’m looking for a partner to fight some crime tonight," she said as she threw some shadow-boxing punches to show her enthusiasm for crime fighting. "A strong man like you is just what I need!”

“Go,” Odysseus once again repeated himself, hoping the extra gruffness in his voice would make her get the message “away.”

“Party pooper!” the young girl pouted and marched off away. But as soon as she caught sight of a cute boy across the room, her peppy spirit instantly reappeared. Odysseus was just relieved that she was bouncing away from him.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Odysseus sighed before turning his scowl towards this next person. This time, however, it was not another super trying to get him to team-up with them that night, but rather one of the S.P.A.R.K. lab techs. Because of how late it was, the Pacific Point location only had a skeleton crew to man the place. As soon as the lab tech saw the annoyance on the hero’s face, he shrunk away from him, as if he thought that the grizzly man was about to beat him up.

“It’s about time,” Odysseus said once he recognized that this guy worked for S.P.A.R.K. He shifted his weight off the wall on which he had been leaning against. Odysseus towered above the lab tech. This definitely did not help the young man be any less scared of the hero.

“I assume that’s what I’m here to pick up,” Odysseus said as he pointed towards the device that the S.P.A.R.K. lab tech was holding. Yet not a single word escaped from his lips. He only could reach out the device to the hero. His arms shook as he stretched them out in front of him.

“Hey, handsome! Still looking for a partner?” Odysseus heard that magical princess girl spoke from behind his back.

“I already told you. Get the fu—” Odysseus began to say as he turned around. But when he caught sight of the girl standing behind him, he initially thought this was an entirely different person. However, he recognized her face and the design of her costume, although it was slightly different. This girl almost looked like as if someone had photoshopped her face onto a more mature woman’s body. Odysseus blinked several times as his brain tried to comprehend the situation. But he soon turned back to the lab tech and took the device out of his hands.

“I just need to press this button, right?” Odysseus asked the lab tech before turning back to the magical princess girl. The lab tech in turn merely shook his head in agreement.

When Odysseus pressed the button, the screen on the device flickered on. Three dots appeared on the screen, each representing Odysseus, the girl, and the tech. The device indicated on its interface that it was initializing a scan, which did not take long. Almost immediately did the dot representing the girl ping, indicating that the frequency of the atoms in her body did not match the rest of the matter from their universe. Although he did not have much time to dwell on it, because his dot did not change at all, Odysseus knew that at least he was normal, whatever normal was.

“You might want to have this lady checked out,” Odysseus told the lab tech after showing the results from the device. “We might also need a house visit from you guys. I don’t need this gadget to recognize that two of my teammates have been fucked up.”

Before the lab tech could make a response, Odysseus already started to walk away, device in hand. He heard the girl protested against the hapless lab tech as he tried to convince her to allow him to run some more diagnostics. A rare smirk appeared on Odysseus’ face when he heard the girl complained that Odysseus did not have a restraining order against him and the lab tech vainly tried to explain that had nothing to do with anything.

---

“You got to be kidding me,” Odysseus muttered under his breath as he came to a stop on his motorcycle. This was the exact reason why he always took the long way back to the Immortal’s base. What’s the point of a secret base when you let people follow you to the front door? If Talus and Gajana were not affected by whatever was turning people into strange versions of themselves, he probably would have given them an earful once he got inside.

Off the coast of the outskirts of Pacific Point, there lies Ithaca Island, a small, deserted isle. Before the Son of Osiris had recruited Odysseus to the Immortals, he operated his crusade against crime in Pacific Point from a base built underneath the island. Once he was recruited, the Immortals took up shop there. Since then, they instituted a dual authorization to ensure only members of the Immortals to gain access to the base. Initially, each member only required a specific id code to get inside, but once they learned from Arachne that some shapeshift had impersonated her civilian identity, the Son of Osiris incorporated what was essentially a magical identity checker.

Although there were several entrances to this subterranean base, Odysseus had taken a backroad to what looked like a small, abandoned dock. In this location, the dual authorization had been hidden in one of the dock’s wooden posts that lined it. What concerned Odysseus was that the people he had stumbled upon at the dock were examining that exact post, just as if they knew about it. Something seemed familiar about these two, as if he had seen them before.

“God, it would be my luck that all this bullshit would be going down while I’m the only one here,” Odysseus said as he began to connect the dots. He had indeed seen the redhead woman. She was with Arachne back when the Hounds had unleashed those roided out metahumans upon Pacific Point. So that meant that the dude in the scarlet and gray tights was…

When the two superheroes heard Odysseus’ voice, they immediately rotated around to face him. At first, they had taken a fighting stance, just in case a villain had gotten the jump on them. However, when they saw that it was only Odysseus standing there, the two relaxed. The redhead leaned over to the man and whispered something to him. Although Odysseus was still within earshot, he was not sure he heard her right, as she mentioned something about a ‘Peter Tingle’ and why it was not working.

“I don’t know why, but the scanner isn’t recognizing me,” the guy in the scarlet and gray costume finally responded to Odysseus, who at that moment was stepping down from his motorcycle and deploying the kickstand.

“Probably because you have turned into a scrawny-ass boy,” Odysseus answered back. He marched over to the wooden post and grasped it with his hand. As he did this, he ignored the clear irritation that the guy wearing the scarlet and gray tights felt after yet again being mistaken for his girlfriend. He had zero clue how people keep confusing him for Arachne. He was not even a drider! The redhead, on the other hand, just had an amused look on her face.

“Code athanatos beta,” Odysseus uttered. Once these words escaped the hero’s lips, an eerie glow emanated from the wooden structure before vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared.

Identity confirmed. Welcome, Odysseus. A disembodied voice echoed after this small light show had finished. Then, there was movement in the water next to the dock. Out from the dark waters arose a concrete structure. Once all the water had poured back into the sea, the heavy-duty entrance doors slide open.

“You two better wait inside. Some S.P.A.R.K. techs are supposed to come soon, so they can also fix Arachne and turn her back to normal while they’re at it,” Odysseus told the two other heroes on the docks without making any eye contact. Instead, he was heading straight back to his cycle and wheeling it towards the entrance.

“For the freaking gazillionth time, I’m not Arachne!” the man in the scarlet and red costume, that happened to look awfully similar to Arachne’s, if it had been made for a normal human instead of a drider. “How the heck can people keep saying that?”

“That’s exactly what I would expect someone in your state would say,” Odysseus responded while pulling out the device that S.P.A.R.K. had provided him with. He flipped the on switch to the machine and allowed it to do its thing.

“See? This gizmo shows that whatever has been messing with people’s memories and appearances has affected you,” Odysseus remarked before peering down back at the device’s screen. “Oh, and it looks like she’s also affected, too.”

“Wait, what?” the redhead gasped at this unexpected news.

“Hey, don’t be changing the subject,” the guy totally dressed up like Arachne complained, “There’s no way that I’m some weird, gender-bent Arachne!”

“Just get inside,” Odysseus grumbled. All of this was turning out to be too much for him. Why could the Son of Osiris not be the one dealing with this fiasco? Or even Firefox? Odysseus was supposed to be crushing the skulls of the criminal underworld, not baby-sitting strange versions of his teammates from parallel universes!

“It’s impossible! She’s sound asleep back in her apartment. Something strange has also happened to her and I’ve been trying to figure it out all night,” he continued his protest.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Odysseus sighed. “Well, you two better get inside anyways. Besides waiting for S.P.A.R.K., I need you two to distract the two others who have been fucked up like you while I drown all of this madness out with some liquor. There’s no way in hell I’m playing their Axels and Alleys game with them.”

“You mean Axis and Allies?” not-Boy-Arachne corrected Odysseus.

“And what’s wrong with your buddies?” the redhead asked.

“Besides looking like comic book caricatures of themselves, they also have developed an almost comically ridiculous bias against Communists,” Odysseus answered while continuing towards the entrance. “God damn it, why am I’m the only normal one here. Where the hell is Firefox.”

“Hey, what does the whole anti-communist thing have to do with that board game,” the redhead whispered to the spider-themed hero.

“They’re probably looking for someone to play the Soviets because neither wants to be a commie,” he whispered back with an answer.

---

A suburb of Columbus, OH, Earth-201

October, 25th, 2008

“I can’t believe you were afraid of this show when you were a kid.”

The television screen displayed the show’s end credits: a black background with white print, nothing unusual besides the green, 90’s era CGI slime slowly oozing down the screen, along with the show’s weirdly upbeat, yet creepy, theme song.

“If my parent’s generation were freaked out by the Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, I think I had every right to be a little scared of this show when I was five,” Will defended himself to his girlfriend after they had finished marathoning several episodes of the Goosebumps television series. It was almost Halloween and what better way is there to get you into the spirit of the season than the creation of R.L. Stein.

“Sure, you scaredy-cat,” Kyra told her boyfriend with a smile on her face.

The two teenage metahumans had been sitting on a couch in front of the television. Kyra had her nine fox tails wrapped around Will’s back and resting over both of their legs, like a warm, fluffy blanket. The tips of her tail even gave off a faint glow, as they were providing just enough heat to keep the two of them warm without causing the couch, or their clothes, to catch on fire.

Will then reached up with his hand and began to rub gently the back of Kyra’s head, right between her two large, fox ears.

“Stap,” Kyra complained as she recoiled to the feeling she experienced on the back of her head. “Alright, you’re not a scaredy-cat!”

Will immediately stopped and then planted a quick kiss on Kyra’s check. As that was happening, Kyra had pulled out her cell phone to check the time.

“We better get changed. We’re going to have to leave for the Halloween party soon,” Kyra told Will once she saw what time it was. She unraveled her tails that had been covering both of their legs before standing back up. Once on her feet, she tugged up on the jeans she was wearing before heading to her bedroom.

After Kyra had clicked shut her bedroom door, she activated her power nullifier, which caused her fox ears and nine tails to disappear. She then plopped down onto the side of her bed and started to brush her dyed red hair, which she had colored specifically for her costume. Whenever Kyra would switch between her kitsune appearance and her regular self, she would always have to redo her hair, as it lay differently when she has two fox ears crowning her head.

Once she had fixed her hair, she then went to her closet and retrieved yellow jump suit that would have looked awfully plain if it did not also include red gloves and boots that were tipped with orange flames. After Kyra had placed the red mask that went with this costume, she had completed her look. Once dressed, she exited her room and returned to the living room where they had been watching tv just minutes before.

“So, how do I look?”

“Like the hottest girl I know,” Will complemented Kyra, although he seemed quite amused by the pun he had just made.

“Like that one hasn’t gotten old already,” Kyra said as she rolled her eyes.

“Well, you are the girl with fire powers dressing up like a fictional superhero with fire powers,” Will replied.

“Says the boy with spider powers dressed like Spider-Man,” Kyra answered back with a smile, since he was in fact wearing a Spider-Man costume.

“Touché.”

“Thank goodness Matt doesn’t have ice power. That would totally be too obvious,” Kyra told her boyfriend.

As if it happened right on cue, the doorbell rang.

“Speak of the devil,” Will mentioned once he heard the doorbell. “I guess it’s that time.”

“This is going to be a night we’ll never forget,” Kyra muttered before the two of them headed to the front door.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

got some stuff in the works.

Also, we should all start thinking about wrapping up our arcs in preparation for season 3

@nitemare shape

Trying to wrap my stuff as quickly as I can. Just has been a busy week.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

<Snipped quote by Eddie Brock>

I hear that. I need to get a move on myself. I've got something about half written, I need to get back to work on that

@nitemare shape

I have a post that has been half finished since October.

Well, I guess I at least made two posts relatively recently. And maybe a third, soon!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

The Mandela Effect: Part 8

Christopher Arthur III

Lost Haven, ME

Minerva impatiently tapped her foot as she peered out of the window from the top floor of the Sherman Center. Although everyone in the future headquarters of the Guardians saw this woman as Chris’ assistant, it was all a façade. The Greek goddess, Athena, used this disguise as a way to keep an eye on Chris and the other heroes. Obviously, most of the secretary work was beneath the goddess and she therefore used used apparitions for most of the day-to-day work. But when something needed to get done, Athena would step in, like when Athena had to locate all the heroes during the Pax Metahumana crisis. Only a being like a goddess could have accomplished such a task.

Christopher Arthur had departed about an hour ago in response to a situation in the financial district. The report was that a couple heroes had shown up on the scene and were unable to apprehend the suspect. No one knew quite what the villain’s powers were, but the initial report was that he could emit black energy from his hands. Because Chris had a couple new devices he wanted to test, he ran out of the Sherman Center as fast as he could when he heard that even those heroes were in trouble.

When Minerva saw Chris’ power armor soaring back to the Sherman Center, she gave a sigh or relief, although she also rolled her eyes. She then turned and walked over towards the express elevator that connected to the rooftop. The elevator dinged as the two doors slid open, revealing Chris standing within while still dressed in the undersuit he always would wear beneath his power armor.

“You should have seen that guy’s face when his powers did nothing against my armor,” Chris boasted while he exited the elevator. Minerva just gave him an unimpressed look when she heard his boast. When Chris did not get the expected response from his assistant, he continued after taking a gulp from the water bottle he had been holding.

“The perp’s metahuman powers allowed him to nullify someone’s powers temporarily. He almost wet himself when he realized you can’t cancel out powers that didn’t exist.”

“How did the devices fare in your field test,” Minerva asked while she ignored Chris’s boasts.

“The sonic emitters worked like a charm,” Chris reported. Back when the Hounds of Humanity had attacked Lost Haven University, Chris had been able to procure some of the rubble of the towers that the Hounds had used to dust some metahuman students, lacking a better word. He then reverse-engineered the technology and created a proto-type that used a fraction of a percentage of the power that the original device used. Chris wanted something that could stun, not kill. “Blackout—“

“Blackout?” Minerva asked for some clarification.

“That’s what the dude called himself,” Chris explained. “Anyways, the emitters stunned him long enough for me to get a jump on him, not that I really needed it.”

“And how did the sonic emitters affect the other heroes?”

“They experienced slight annoyance, although that might have been mitigated by Blackout’s powers. I still need to figure out a way so the emitters only affect the baddies.”

“And what about the nullifying cuffs?”

“No cigar,” Chris admitted, “he must not be one of Diplodoc’s. Kind of limits its usefulness. Anything else?”

“I think we should fast-track the installation of the wavelength scanners in Pacific Point. They have a metahuman population higher than the national average, so it would be an efficient location for scanning.”

“It will take some time to shuffle the installation schedule,” Chris told his assistant after he had taken another gulp from his water bottle. “We’ve been at this for an entire month now and we don’t even have the Eastern Seaboard completely covered yet. It won’t be a quick fix.”

Chris then paused for a moment. He knew that Minerva’s suggestion was right. The majority of people who had their memories or even powers altered were metahumans. What was the point of prioritizing some small town in the Midwest with little metahuman activity when there are bigger fish to fry? But manufacturing the devices, securing the proper permits for installation, and the manhours required to get everything done meant that he could not just wave a magic wand and produce an instant fix. These things took time.’

“If you think we should prioritize Pacific Point, why don’t we send one of the miniaturized proto-types to either S.P.A.R.K. or the Immortals? It has limited range, but if they find anyone, they can contact us.”

“I’ll put the paperwork in and set everything in motion,” Minerva told Chris.

“Alright. Unless you have anything else, I’ll be in the shower. Got a big date tonight,” Chris mentioned as he backpedaled towards the elevator.

“Have fun,” Minerva said with sarcasm. Even though Minerva had her back to him, Chris knew she was rolling her eyes at him. But it was not like he cared. She could judge him all she wants. He was the one who was paying her salary.

Once Minerva heard the elevator ding, indicating that the doors had shut, she gave a sigh of relief. She did not think that it would have been this easy to manipulate Chris to help out. It only took Minerva one look at her unconscious pupil to know that there was something wrong with Aubrey. Once she found out what had happened to Kelly Brown and Sammy Kadowsky, Minerva could easily connect the dots. Now she had to wait and see if her hunch turned out to be correct.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

New post up. Feels good to get something out finally.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

The Mandela Effect: Part 7

Previously On Create-A-Hero

"90's" Aubrey Adkins

Pacific Point, CA

A cool breeze from the Pacific Ocean had brought its refreshing air into Pacific Point, transforming what would have been a sweaty night into a comfortable evening. This made it a perfect day for a visit to the Pacific Point state fair, even for the resident superheroes. Even the people who save the world every Tuesday need some rest and relaxation.

Aubrey and Will were wading through the huge crowds that had surrounded all the star attractions at the fair. Even with the cool breeze, the packed-together crowd still made things a little uncomfortable. Since Aubrey knew this would happen, she dressed accordingly, with a pair of athletic shorts and an Ohio State t-shirt. There, the two young adults kept their eyes out for anything that was not already swarmed by locals and tourists alike. This unfortunately would be a difficult situation, considering the situation the two of them had found themselves in.

“Why don’t we try that house of mirrors? It doesn’t look too busy,” Aubrey suggested once that building had come into her line of sight. Since Will had not found any other alternatives, he readily agreed with his girlfriend’s suggestion. The building bore a sign that said: “The Four Ages of Man.” Aubrey had no idea what this had to do with mirrors, but it was better than staying outside.

Once Aubrey and Will had entered the building, they soon realized that they were almost the only souls inside. They might have seen two, maybe three, others wandering through the glass maze. Not that this was a bad thing, as they were free from the crowded mess just outside the entrance to the house of mirrors.

For the first few minutes, nothing eventful happened, as a superhero’s day off should turn out. However, once Aubrey had stumbled upon one peculiar mirror that had the letters “FE” printed all around the mirror’s rim. Unlike all the other mirrors she and her boyfriend had seen in this attraction, instead of seeing her own reflection warped and distorted, Aubrey saw herself dressed in her Arachne costume, along with her drider physique on display instead of her human form.

“Will, are you seeing this?” Aubrey asked her boyfriend as she turned away from the mirror.

“Should we leave? Someone obviously knows your identity,” Will suggested to his girlfriend.

“It’s probably a better plan to play it cool. If they know who I am, they could find me elsewhere.”

Will nodded in agreement, although there was still an expression of concern on his face. However, since she was the superhero amongst the pair, he trusted her judgement and if things happen to go south, she could get them out of danger.

Therefore, the young couple continued through the maze of mirrors, until they found another strange mirror. This one had a bronze rim that had the letters “CU” and “SN” stamped into it in an alternating order. Although Aubrey again saw her superheroine persona looking back at her in this mirror, the reflection was dressed differently from her regular costume.

What Aubrey was seeing was like a warped version of herself, as there were clear similarities between her costume and the Arachne in the mirror, but there were some clear differences, too. This other Arachne had a mask that, although similar in design to hers, exposed her jaw, while also allowing her long, blonde locks billow around her head, unlike her own ponytail. She was also wearing a dark gray bomber jacket, for whatever reason. Plus, she had girted around her waist a belt that seemed to serve no purpose, other than maybe a utility belt, as it was not holding anything up. Furthermore, although this mirror Arachne donned red boats just like those Aubrey wore, she covered the rest of her eight spidery legs with spiderweb patterned fishnet leggings. If any of these differences could not convince someone of this mirror Arachne looking just a little bit stripperish, her flaunting of her even more ridiculous bust through a spider-shaped boob window would have.

Okay, I would never dress like that. What’s even the point of that gaping hole in her shirt? Aubrey thought as she examined the reflection in this mirror.

“Hey, Will. Have you seen this mirror? It kind of like that other mirror, but it’s showing a weird version of me.”

Once he heard his girlfriend’s request, he turned away from the mirror he had been peering at and walked back over to his girlfriend. He cocked his head as he examined the mirror in question.

“And I thought I was the one who needed glasses. That just looks like your normal costume.”

“Normal?” Aubrey muttered because she was puzzled from her boyfriend’s response.

Aubrey then glanced back at the bronze-rimmed mirror and examined the reflection again. But this time, even though the image was the same, for some strange reason the Arachne who was staring back looked normal to her, as Will said. It was the only costume she has ever worn. In fact, it annoyed her to no end how people would complain about the lack of modesty of her costume. Why does a girl who can take bullets to the face have to worry about how much spandex is covering her body?

After Aubrey had finished admiring how she looked in her costume, she then pulled down on the bottom of her minidress. She had no idea why she had not changed out of her “working” clothes to the fair. Her stiletto heels were killing her, as she had worn them for several hours by now. She was half tempted to go barefoot.

Then Aubrey continued through the maze, leaving the bronze-rimmed mirror behind her. Her heels echoed with a click after each footstep. But soon, Aubrey stumbled upon yet another mirror like the other two. However, this one had a silver border, with the letters “AG” decorating it. Aubrey rolled her eyes when this mirror came into her sight. She swore the last mirror had shown a strange version of herself, even though somehow it didn’t.

The Arachne in the silver mirror looked like a prude to her. Her entire body was covered in spandex. She did not even display any of her blonde hair, as it was contained underneath her mask. If Aubrey did not know better, she would have thought that some overzealous and knee-jerky censorship board had erased all of her curves. She probably barely needed a bra with that figure.

What about this one? Aubrey asked her boyfriend, again.

“Nope, that’s still you.”

Aubrey scratched her head and glanced at her reflection again. Yet again, the Arachne in the mirror looked normal to her, even though it had not just moments before. In fact, it looked pretty groovy on her. Plus, who won’t want to hide their identity with a full-cover costume? She had a promising modeling career ahead of her. Why would she want to ruin it by revealing that she was a freaky, giant spider below the waist?

“Why does this keep happening!”

“You look so cute when you’re flustered,” Will told his girlfriend as he wrapped his arms around her capri-clad waist.

“Laugh it up, funny guy! I know you’re thinking I’m having a blonde moment,” Aubrey responded back.

“What? That would be stereotyping! I would never suggest something as horrible as that!”

“Yah, yah, whatever, lover boy. But we better get out of here. You never know when some villain will try to hold the city ransom or rob some strange mystical relic from the local museum. Honestly, they’re sometimes too predictable.”

“Hey, there’s another one of those mirrors. Let’s check it out before we head out,” Will suggested.

“If we have to,” Aubrey sighed as she rolled her eyes. Then, after Aubrey had voiced her half-hearted protests, the two of them approached the mirror. This mirror was surrounded by golden rims that were imprinted with the letters “AU.”

“So, what do you see?” Will asked.

“Just my normal Arachne alter-ego.”

“See, I knew you weren’t going crazy,” Will said as he planted a kiss on Aubrey’s cheek.

I love this haircut. I look so cute with those bangs, Aubrey thought after she had peered back at her reflection in the golden mirror. The skirt and the tall, red boots helped complete the look. They even looked cute on her spider legs. Yet she sighed at how her torso contrasted with her “girl next door” look.

Why do these stupid bullet bras have to be all the rage these days? It makes me look like I’m hauling around two nuclear warheads under my shirt.

Aubrey shook her head as she recalled the day when that Katherine woman had “blessed” her with these endowments. She was kind of surprised that nobody had realized that both Aubrey Adkins and her alter ego, Arachne, had changed physically in the same way. Well, everyone except for her husband, Will, but one should expect that from one who was so close to the drider heroine.

“Hey, Will. Are you ready to—“ Aubrey began to say, but when she turned around, she found he was no longer there.

Where could he have gone? She wondered as she peered around the mirror maze. Maybe he already went into the next room.

Aubrey then advanced into the next room. This room contained dozens of mirrors, each of them forming a wall. However, what was strange about this room was the mirrors did project a reflection, nor did the room possess an exit. How were people supposed to get out of this maze?

“Remember who you are,” Aubrey heard her own voice echoes in the room, although it did not originate from her mouth. She turned towards the origin of her disembodied voice and she found a reflection of the Arachne from the gray mirror gazing back at her. But unlike Aubrey’s past interactions with these mirrors, this reflection did not mimic her movements. Instead, this modern Arachne was moving independent of her.

“What am I wearing?” Aubrey uttered when she noticed that she had been reverted back into her drider form and she was wearing a scarlet and gray costume that was similar, yet different than her own. She soon realized she was wearing the same costume as the Arachne in the mirror. In fact, she looked like a spitting image of the mirror Arachne, except for maybe her bullet bra look and the length of her hair.

“No, I am your true self,” said her disembodied voice, but this time it came from the other direction. When Aubrey turned around, she saw the Arachne from the silver mirror in one of the mirrors. And just like last time, the real Aubrey’s appearance soon matched the mirrors, although the real Aubrey was far more curvy than the string bean in that mirror.

“Don’t list to her, I’m the real you!” The next mirror contained the Arachne from the bronze mirror. Soon, Aubrey had to hold shut that stupid boob window, as saying that the real Aubrey was nowhere as well endowed as her mirror counterpart would have been the understatement of the year. What had Katherine done to this Arachne? Aubrey just had been lucky that her healing factor had reverted herself to her normal, slender appearance when she had her run-in with Katherine. But that could not be right. She clearly remembered that day when her healing factor went haywire and randomized a new body for her from the various forms Katherine had transformed Aubrey into. Yet this did not match with her slender build. What was happening to her memories?

“Don’t let them fool you. You know we’re one and the same!” the Arachne from the golden mirror claimed.

Ugh, I look like a hooker wearing a catholic schoolgirl outfit! Aubrey thought as she saw her costume change yet again to match the one belonging to the Arachne from the golden mirror. Sure, both of them were curvy, but the real Arachne’s body looked like Katherine had cranked it up to eleven. Even the thought of this mirror Arachne being lucky because she had not cursed been cured like she had been had crossed Aubrey’s mind.

Then, even more Arachnes began to appear, each slightly different from the last. For example, there was one Arachne who looked almost like the gray-mirror Arachne, but her costume was pink and blue instead of scarlet and gray. Furthermore, other Aubreys, who clearly were still superheroes despite not bearing the Arachne name, also appeared in these mirrors. One even looked like she had Kelly Brown’s powers. Or was it Victoria, who used to be the Silver Sorceress before Kelly and her swapped powers? Aubrey could not remember, as she had too many conflicting memories.

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Aubrey shouted as she crumbled onto the floor. She grasped at her head, as a headache racked her mind, as if someone had taken a sledgehammer and smashed it against her cranium.

Aubrey suddenly sat up in her bed. Her forehead was drenched in sweat and her breathing rapid and irregular. But this seemed to have been all a dream, as Aubrey found herself in her apartment in Pacific Point. She could feel her head spinning, no doubt from all the pop she had consumed before she headed to bed. Although Aubrey’s healing factor would soon make short work of this hangover, it was going to suck until then.

Once Aubrey had realized that what she had experienced was just a dream, she tried to rest her head back onto her pillow and get some more rest. She had not gotten much sleep yet, as it was still the middle of the night. And what little sleep she did get, it was quite a restless one because of the nightmare she had experienced. Considering she was going to spend the rest of the week with her husband, Will, she needed all the beauty rest she could get.

Wait, don’t I live on Nautican Island? Aubrey thought, opening her eyes once this thought passed her mind. And Will and I aren’t married! Sure, we’ve been together since high school, but we haven’t tied the knot yet. Or has it been only a couple months? Why can’t I remember?

Aubrey immediately sat back and threw off her sheets. She then rolled out of bed and landed on all eight of her spidery legs. Maybe all she needed was to splash some water in her face to snap out of whatever this was. This had to be the worst hangover ever.

She stumbled out of her bedroom, zig-zagging here and there. Once she had entered the bathroom, she turned the nob of the faucet and filled the palms of her hands with water before splashing it against her face. Then, she peered up and gazed at her reflection. She was relieved when she saw that her normal reflection was looking back at her. Aubrey knew she could not endure any more of those stupid mirrors form her nightmare.

“Why are my memories so clouded?” Aubrey muttered as she continued to gaze at her own reflection. “Maybe I need another drink.”

Aubrey then headed out of the bathroom and towards the kitchen. But as she made her way to the refrigerator, she noticed that her living room couch had become vacant. Where could Will have gone? Aubrey would have suited up and gone after him, but she was in no state to go wandering around the city in colorful tights. Since her spider-sense would have warned her if something bad had happened while she was asleep, she guessed someone or something had not kidnapped her boyfriend.

When Aubrey opened the refrigerator door, she was disappointed when she found that the only liter bottle left barely had any liquid left in it. There was barely a drop. Why did she even bother to put the plastic liter bottle back? Maybe she was too drunk off of the caffeine to know what she was doing? She then reached for the self-filtering water pitcher and poured herself a glass. She probably could use some water after drinking all those cokes last night.

After Aubrey had quenched her thirst, she went back to bed. She hoped that some more shuteye would be the perfect medicine for her memory problems. And for the hangover, for a matter of fact. However, before Aubrey crawled into her bed and rested her head on her pillow, she noticed her phone was flashing.

“Athena, what updates do you have that are so important that you have to bother me at this hour?”

<Your work called. Whitney has called in sick and they want to know if you would be willing to move up your photoshoot for next month’s edition tomorrow. They would like an answer in the morning.>

“Well, I’ll send a response in the morning, when I can actually think straight. Is that all?”

<There is on other thing. The news has reported that there have been sightings of someone dressed like you. Obviously it’s not you, as this person is entirely human looking.>

“And he’s a dude.” Aubrey stated as she looked at the hologram projection of one photograph of the supposed spider-person. She had no idea how anyone could confuse this person with her. Isn't her drider physique distinct enough to ensure that?

Could it be? Aubrey wondered as she examined the picture more closely. Will had been missing when Aubrey had gotten up for a drink. But this hypothesis was impossible; Will did not have any powers. Well, this was a mystery for future Aubrey to figure out. Now, she needed to catch some z’s.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Should have a post up tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Character you have created: Araceli Holguín y Muguruza (Or, simply Araceli Holguín in Yanqui naming conventions)

Alias: N/A. Araceli embraces being superpowered as part of her rocker life, and makes no attempt at hiding that she has powers.

Speech Color: Cyan

Character Alignment: Walking the Line.

@Megsychan