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6. After being let out of the hospital, a tabloid journalist fell in love with a princess.

Love was nothing Whitney had ever thought about.

She wasn’t beautiful, smart, or funny. She was tenacious, but considering the reaction that usually got her, she didn’t think it was necessarily to her benefit.

Her prettiest feature was her hair. It naturally tousled itself into looping curls and was a soft brown that urged hands to touch. At least, people were always touching it or asking to touch it.

Sometimes it was awkward. Sometimes it was weird.

With Flora, it was wonderful.

Princess Floriana Della Bonadeci, second daughter of Crown Prince Darius Mekiah Bonadeci of the small kingdom of Kharvis. Beautiful, gentle, and for some reason interested in Whitney.

And while the commonsense thing would have been to reject the princess’ attentions, for once Whitney refused to be sensible.

She wanted the whirlwind romance. The sweet kisses that would eventually have to lead to a bittersweet goodbye.

Because Flora was as high above her as the birds sweeping through the sky, wings widespread, impossible to hold in place. Because a bird needed to fly.

And Flora, beautiful Flora, was as tied to her homeland as those birds were tied to the air above. Someday she would have to go home. And Whitney would have to stay behind.

Because Whitney was a journalist for a trashy tabloid that nobody respected. Because it had only been chance that let the two of them meet–their arms brushing as they both tried to use the same hospital vending machine–and chance was what would part them.

Because Flora’s father was going to be a king. Someday soon from the way she spoke of her grandfather. And when that happened, Flora would be propelled into the public eye, and

… Read the rest “6. After being let out of the hospital, a tabloid journalist fell in love with a princess. #HarperWCK”

A Spoiler about the Crimson Cape/Paul Polk

While he works, Paul is very focused on the job. At least, that’s the vibe I think I’m getting (about where I want this off the cuff story to go).

In his off time, he is wild and carefree and the job is solely left on the backburner.

But when he’s on the clock, and his cape is across his shoulders, none of that personal stuff touches his thoughts. Because he’s entirely focused on the task at hand.

It just doesn’t help that, sometimes, Paul isn’t good at his job? Like, he follows the manual. He knows all the rules. But he’s not someone commonly left in charge of large action situations.

Usually, when a mission is deemed too big for someone at his level, someone like Lady Arcana, Captain Victorious, or Blue Ice is called in. (At this point in the timeline, Caspian Dukes has not stepped into the authority role he will hold in the future.)

Setting of the Polk storyline:

  • Set during "Allies & Enemies"

  • the lead members of the League of Superheroes are reeling after their confrontation with Darkstar

  • Blue Ice has had his "situation"

  • the Flame Burst is in the hospital

  • Caspian Dukes has taken some bereavement leave
  • Captain Victorious is convalescing
  • Masque is handling the backend of running a world recognized superhero organization

The Crimson Cape is put in charge of the dimensional incursions simply because he’s one of the only senior members not dealing with post-Darkstar encounter injuries and shocks. He is just back from a short leave where he didn’t bother to keep up with daily briefings.

He’s back on the clock, right in the midst of a disaster that he should have been handling earlier because Master Greenthumb and the Junior League were struggling … Read the rest “!SPOILERS!: HVU: excerpt: WIPs, Snips, Bits and Bobs: Paul Polk/Crimson Cape”

This is one of my prompt-fill for "WIPs, Snips, Bits and Bobs."

8. After the divorce was finalized, an out-of-work astrophysicist caused the zombie apocalypse.

The zombie apocalypse was nowhere in her plans. It was just something that happened. That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

God, she hated the way the guilt ate away at her. It felt like it was searing straight through to the heart and soul of her.

She’d screwed up. The whole world was being punished for it.

Huddling in the mess of her office, she gave in to her despair for a time. Sobbing into her hands, her mouth opening wide in silent screams, while snot dripped from her nose and her whole body shook.

She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen. She’d been trying to fix things ever since she’d realized what she’d done. But it was no good.

She had to face the facts of the situation: There was no reversing the zombie virus ravaging across the country.

There was no cure. No magic bullet to fix everything.

There was only going to be a fight to survive, and the reality of success or failure at living. No bringing anybody back once they were infected.

The thought of all the dead turned her stomach. And it wasn’t completely guilt. It was the hopelessness of it all. The realization that no matter what she did it wasn’t going to make anything better, because there was no longer anything to make better.

All those people out there, turned into ravening monsters, attacking their families and friends… They could not be saved.

They were already dead. And now they were killing any living creatures they came across, from human to animal. Though only humans were reanimating. So-far.

She’d thought giving … Read the rest ““After the divorce was finalized, an out-of-work astrophysicist caused the zombie apocalypse” #HarperWCK”

While avoiding creditors, a banker was hit by a truck while crossing the street.

It should have been the start of a funny story. Not funny "haha," but a quirky anecdote told at a party or in a passing way.

Instead it was the story of her life.

The life her father had left her, after getting himself killed running across a busy intersection. He was trying to avoid the creditors chasing him at the time, but he still hadn’t given the daytime traffic more than a passing glance.

The truck had hit him head on.

He’d died at the scene.

The creditors had been forced to give her nearly a million dollars in compensation for causing her father’s death.

It was both ironic and horrible.

What should have been a funny story was instead the tragedy of her teenaged life. Was the source of her misery as a newly orphaned teen with a passel of unknown relatives suddenly popping out of the woodwork.

Her money was in a trust account that handled her school fees and paid her caretakers a monthly stipend. It was a guaranteed $2500 every month until she was 18, when the money started transferring into her own bank account.

Until she was 18, she was a "rich girl" with empty pockets. The money never felt as real as the loss of her father.

It wasn’t worth it.

Words from "The Cat In The Hat" by Dr. Seuss: A, About, After, All, Always, And, Another, Any, Are, As, Asked, At, Away, Back, Bad, Ball, Be, Bed, Bent, Bet, Big, Bit, Bite, Book, Books, Bow, Box, Bump, Bumps, But, Cake, Call, Came, Can, Cat, Cold, Come, Could, Cup, Day, Dear, Deep, Did, Dish, Do, Dots, Down, Fall, Fan, Fast, Fear, Fell, Find, Fish, Fly, For, Fox, From, Fun, Funny, Game, Games, Gave, Get, Give, Go, Gone, Good, Got, Gown, Had, Hall, Hand, Hands, Has, Hat, Have, He, Head, Hear, Her, Here, High, Him, His, Hit, Hold, Home, Hook, Hop, Hops, House, How, I, If, In, Into, Is, It, Jump, Jumps, Kicks, Kind, Kinds, Kite, Kites, Know, Last, Let, Like, Lit, Little, Look, Looked, Lot, Lots, Made, Make, Man, Mat, Me, Mess, Milk, Mind, Mother, Mother’s, My, Near, Net, New, No, Not, Nothing, Now, Of, Oh, On, One, Our, Out, Pack, Pat, Pick, Picked, Pink, Play, Playthings, Plop, Pot, Put, Rake, Ran, Red, Rid, Run, Sad, Said, Sally, Sank, Sat, Saw, Say, See, Shake, Shame, She, Shine, Ship, Shook, Should, Show, Shut, Sit, So, Some, Something, Stand, Step, Stop, String, Strings, Sun, Sunny, Tail, Take, Tall, Tame, Tell, That, The, Their, Them, Then, There, These, They, Thing, Things, Think, This, Those, Thump, Thumps, Tip, To, Too, Top, Toy, Trick, Tricks, Two, Up, Us, Wall, Want, Was, Way, We, Well, Went, Were, Wet, What, When, White, Who, Why, Will, Wish, With, Wood, Would, Yes, Yet, You, Your