So nice to hear from you!

     First off, thank you so much Brian, Deanna and Luke!  I was so happy to see that people are reading my ramblings and willing to help me!  It was feeling a bit lonely out here in Cyberville.  :(
      So ... Rae is going to say she is going to see the Oregon Coast (who doesn't want to go there) which gives her a couple of days travel time before people start to worry.  My brother insists that there should be explosions but that's a teenage boy for ya!  We'll see if that works in.  When she leaves Rae is going to send flowers to each member of the Wayne-Greyson-Pennyworth household with a secret message via the Victorian flower language (something she learned from her maternal grandmother and that only Alfred will be able to fully decipher).  I've already started writing that scene! ->

      Dick sighed wearily as he threw the keys to the Bird Bike across his room, in the general direction of the end table, and slumped onto his bed; it had been a long night of fighting crime and he was looking forward to catching a few hours of sleep. He was surprised when heard his keys impact against ceramics. To his confusion there appeared to be a vase of flowers sitting on the table by his door. How had he missed that? Must have been more tired than he thought.

     There is more but I'm going to wait until I have more written to share.  :)  In her luggage are her various face shape altering devices and a couple of wigs/hair dye that she will use to change her looks in order to slip past any Missing Persons net that Batman or her father throw up.  And she will have liquidated almost all of her assests so she can pay cash for everything she needs, including the purchasing of a burner cell phone.  She will use a combination of buses and hitchhiking to travel to Oklahoma where she can say she 'lost' all her identification and procure new documents.  (Saying she lost her job and home and has lived in the streets might also work as her 'backstory' as the former Guardian works with people and animals in need.)

    Darrel and Alloria Curtis enjoyed the benefits of being semi retired.  Darrel was always a strong, hard working man, loyal to his responsibilities; after years doing back breaking roofing to support his wife and their four children, Darrel now owned his own building company and worked hard to make life better for his workers.  Alloria, still pretty while in her sixties, was once a police dispatcher, a job she was able to keep through the birth of their twins and son, after which she started doing the books for the police department.  Now she works part time, when they need her, the rest of her time is spent in animal and youth advocacy programs.
    Tonight they are spending a quiet evening at home, reading as usual.  Their eldest, twin son and daughter, are off and married; their next, another son, is likely somewhere with his cousins (who are also his housemates); and their youngest, another daughter, lives a few blocks over, closer to the school where she teaches.  They don't expect any friends or family tonight so Darrel is surprised when his wife and their German Shepard suddenly look towards the back door.  His wife has been acting strangely the past few weeks but he hasn't asked why, he figures she'll tell him when she's ready.  He lowers the paper he is reading as she rises and goes to open the back door.  Hans (the dog) waves his tail in a friendly fashion until his mistress shuts the door in his face.  Immediately he goes to the slightly open window near the door and sticks his nose to the screen, watching, smelling, listening.  Darrel listens too.
    "I know you're out there," comes his wife's voice, speaking softly into the darkness.  He can see from under the partially open curtain that she hasn't bothered to turn on the porch light and all that illuminates their backyard is the moon.  "With these extra senses it's hard to miss you."
    "I'll be more than happy to take them back as soon as the Council says so," comes another woman's voice, younger, but weary, with a touch of bitterness and wryness.
    "Since you're here, care to explain how you lost them in the first place?" Alloria began to take the tone she did when she wasn't sure if she should be angry at their children or comfort them.
    "Would you mind if we talked someplace a little more private?" the other woman asked.  "I've learned the night has many ears."
    "Come inside.  Do you have your companion with you?"  Darrel quietly folded his newspaper as he listened for the reply.
    "I actually have three with me, I hope you don't mind."
    "I won't but my husband may.  Would any of them mind staying outside for now?"
    Darrel heard the mewing of two cats, to which Hans pricked his ears, then caught the woman's response as he slipped into the next room.
    "Sable and Leppy will stay out here."
    "Very well, come in."
    Darrel heard the door open and the whisper of unfamiliar footsteps following his wife into the house.  There was a soft thump as something was deposited near the door, then several long moments of slightly awkward silence which Alloria finally broke.
    "Have a seat on the couch while I get you something to drink then we can discuss things.  Any requests?"
    "Water will be fine.  And maybe some Saltines."
    Darrel watched his wife head the other way down the hall to the kitchen, listening to the sound of someone settling on the couch.  As Alloria returned, a glass of water in one hand and a glass of what he suspected was rum and coke in other, he gave her a questioning glance.  Momentarily bypassing the living room Alloria stood on tip toe to give her husband a quick peck on the cheek.  While he was still bent over she whispered into his ear, "It may be a while, go ahead upstairs and I'll explain things later."
    After returning her peck he nodded and did as she suggested.  His wife would often have mysterious visitors from her work as an advocate that didn't tolerate men well so he had learned to be patient and make himself scarce when necessary. 
    Lori handed Rae the glass of water and the packet of crackers that she had tucked under one arm before settling into her chair, Hans curling next to her feet in an echo of the Himalayan perched next to the younger woman.

     As for getting to Germany ... we'll see.  It would be so much easier if Rae either wasn't hiding from Batman and Robin (so she could use his resources or any of her already established identities) or wasn't pregnant (in which case she shift into a cat or mouse and ship herself to the sanctuary in Germany).  But I like making things complicated for myself evidently.

Leap 32 - Gone With the Wind

     So, I was listening to some country the other day and when Draggin' the River by Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert came on it started me to thinking about my NaNo08 character Rayella who vanishes and the fact I'd never really thought about *how* she disappeared.  But first, some back story.
     Rayella McGinty's DNA was altered as a child so that she has the ability to shift into some animals and communicate telepathically with all animals.  With these abilities, a strong sense of justice, and much training from Robin (a school friend) and Batman she joined the Teen Titans.  Shortly after joining the Teen Titans she was also selected to be the current Guardian of Terran Animals, a position that has been passed down since nearly the beginning of time and has given her extra abilities and strength.  While with the Titans she met and fell in love with the newest Guardian of Marine Animals, Garth aka Aqualad.  They even married secretly.  Unfortunately their marriage didn't last as she found him cheating on her with an Atlantian.  And shortly after that she found out she was pregnant.  Her anger at Garth coupled with wild pregnancy hormones causes her to attack him, a big Guardian no-no causing both to temporarily lose their positions and some abilities.  She continued crime fighting for a little bit after she discovered her pregnancy but soon, for the safety of herself and her unborn, Fauna 'retires'.  A month or so later, just as her pregnancy was beginning to show, Rae herself vanished, unwilling to admit to others that she was pregnant and unwilling to betray that she and Garth were married.  I originally had her going to the Black Forest on the Germanic border where there is a little, hidden monastery where the clerics know about the Guardians.  But Bruce and Dick know all her alternate identities, would be watching the airlines and there is no way she is taking a ship, what with morning sickness and her recent divorce from someone so connected to the sea.  So instead she goes to Oklahoma where she knows the former Guardian lives to establish a new identity so she can travel to Germany later.  Now, as for how she 'vanishes'.  Here's what I've come up with.

• Blow up her apartment.  - It's a bit destructive.  - I didn't have her in an apartment earlier in the story.  *She could send a British rep to commission the building of her new apartment.  * Makes reentering Gotham society rather ... interesting.
• Push her car into the river.  - Where in Gotham would she push her car into the river?  Seems like a waste of a perfectly fine piece of equipment.  - It would be a bit cruel to her family, as they think her mother died in a car accident.  She leaves letters for her father, Bruce and Dick so they will know she's not dead but still.  * Once again, society.
• Simply disappears.  What's the fun in that?  How would she travel?  By bus?  Cab is trackable.  So is train.  And car.
• She could have a public fight with someone as Rae then disappears.  But with who?  Not her father.
• Say she is going on a trip someplace, then doesn't check in.

Do you have any other ideas?  Which one do you think is best?

Top image from I have forgotten where.  Bottom image from Getty Images.

Leap 31 - Her Stony Face

Write about something on the verge of collapse: building, bridge, marriage, contest, institution, alliance, certainty

      How fitting, Rayella thought bitterly, that he had chosen this section of the city to attack. Did he know, she wondered, what lay beneath the streets here? From his association with Slade it was certianly possible, but even with all he had done she didn't want to beleive he would knowingly endanger theri sister's last resting place like that.
     The cavern had been high ceilinged and open until a few hours ago, empty except for Terra's statue, dried flowers left by Holly, and the security system Robin had installed to protect this little sanctuary.  Now there was rubble everywhere and she could feel the dust tickling her throat, even through the cloth she clutched to her face.  Streams of dirt randomly fell from the ceiling as she made her way through the devastation towards the fallen form of her sister and the plaque resting at her stony base.  How long until the street above broke through, she wondered and in answer a rumble suddenly came from above.  Taking the warning, Rae snatched up the plaque, took one last look at Terra's frozen face of painful triumph and fled.

Prompt from: - The Pocket Muse Endless Inspiration, New Ideas For Writing, page 7 (Monica Woods)

Leap 30 - A World of Pure Imagination

Open an imaginary door.  What do you see?

The door itself is a bit on the small side for an average person but as it is my imaginary door it is just right for me.  Looping, ivy like scroll-work lines the edge of the door, gold worked in the crevasses, making the creamy, whitewashed wood glow.  It is a rounded affair, fatter on the top than it's slender, squared bottom.  The lower two thirds of the door is partitioned into four even cells, each again lined with gilt.  At the top of the door is a half circle, like the sun bursting from a horizon level with my shoulders, but in shades of beautiful meadow green glass, at once hazy and clear, bubbles suspended in its surface.  I reach my right hand to its scrolled knob and without a hitch the door releases, swinging silently away from me.  I push it with my left to continue its swing and take in the lush, rolling, grass covered hills before me.  The door and the homey, fire warmed room I have just left fade from memory and existence as I breath in the essence of this new place, drinking in the trees that dot the hills, here at the top of knoll, here in a dell, there on the side of a gentle slope.  There are a few animals and I can see they are all at peace.  Deer and a maned lion wander past.  These are the pastures of Aslan, the door of a hobbit hole.  This is a place of classic authors and yet wholly my own.  The grass is velvet soft on my bare feet as I wander; the sun heats the top of my head and the back of my neck but the warm, slight breeze keeps it from becoming too hot.  A few clouds dot the sky that is a clear, deep blue, the likes of which can be seen in Idaho or on mountains in Oregon.  Coming to a giant evergreen at the peak of a hill I stop and settle my skirts around me as I sit.  All that would complete this idyllic scene would be a book and, looking to my left, I find a well thumbed tome, it's green cover and brown binding a familiar friend as I lean against the tree trunk, serenaded by tiny birds conversing in the branches above.

When my family went to the beach in mid November I was desperate for inspiration so I thumbed through this book (The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration by Monica Wood) at one of the outlet stores.  I decided I liked enough of the bits of advice and inspiration to buy it ... and then didn't use it.  Well, I'm fixing that now.  I sat down at the library today, turned to the first bit of inspiration and the prose above popped out (after a bit of editing during transcription to digital form).
As I first began writing I thought the scene beyond the door was going to be of a planet with deserted spires, looming moons, glittering stars and the occasional alien, but then I decided to describe the door first and a whole different world was revealed.  Maybe I'll stop by that place next time.  :)  Sounds like it sure could be fun!
The title comes from the song "Pure Imagination", which I always heard while growing up on Kenny Loggins' Return to Pooh Corner album, but evidently actually comes from the first Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder.

And on the Seventh Day (S)he Rested

Ha ha, not really but here they are.

20. Fortitude: There was no doubt that the Decepticons were the scariest things she had seen and very little was as painful as the things they inflicted upon her but she would not tell them where her new friends were hiding.
21. Vacation: A trip to visit her family wasn’t vacation in her book, it was simply what happens during the summer.
24. No Time: “Ten minutes to get to your wedding? I can get you there in five.”
28. Sorrow: She dreaded the day Adamantium and Kryptonite would die, they were older than she and very much family.
29. Happiness: Happiness was getting all the lights green.
34. Stars: One evening, on a rare night off Sam pointed up at the night sky and asked her partner, “Show me where you are from Downshift.”
50. Breaking the Rules: She loved to watch A-Team reruns and used to imagine that Hannibal was her long lost grandfather.
51. Sport: Sam enjoyed playing softball but didn’t join the team until after her mother left; she and her father also began going to more than one football game a year.
52. Deep in Thought: When classes got busy she spent every spare moment between fares studying.
56. Danger Ahead: “That’s ice on the road you bloody idiot, not glitter!”
68. Hero: When the children were told the prompt for their next paper little Samantha had no problem choosing; her papa was her hero.
78. Drink: When Sam came of age she realized she had rarely seen her father drink and when she asked him why, he had a sobering story to tell of the family struggle with alocholisim and what it had done to the best of men, eliciting a promise from her to never drink alone and prompting her to swear never to drink too much, a promise nearly broken upon Eddie’s betrayal.


* The bloopers for 20 have Sam telling the 'Cons that she goes through worse monthly.  -giggles-  Or maybe she should say she puts others through worse.
*56, silly autobot!
*78 was originally written as three sentences and I despaired of getting it into one, then I started typing and it all fell into place.  Yipee!

On the Sixth Day of Prompting

I fell asleep between 7 and 8 last night while waiting for my father to come check on my computer, which had mysteriously shut itself down, so needless to say, nothing got posted.  :)  Here are the prompts from yesterday.  I'll post the rest later (after I've done them!).

33. Expectations: She always enjoyed the shocked looks when she told people she could speak Irish; no, red hair was not a prerequisite.
38. Abandoned: Every summer the cousins spent their days planning pranks and exploring the words, searching the abandoned sheds for new treasures or animals.
39. Dreams: Ruthie Henshall made the best Fantine, in Sam’s opinion, seconded by Lea Salonga.
65. Horror: As her fellow first grader leaned toward her, his eyes closed and mouth puckered, Samantha’s reaction was horrified and instinctual, hit him with her mud filled hand!
66. Traps: One of her favorite pranks included saran wrap across a doorway and a very convincing, blood curdling scream.
69. Annoyance: Once, while Sam was bowling with her cousin, she left one pin, every frame!
75. Mirror: For a week, at every reflective surface she stopped and touched her newly short, chestnut hair.
82. Can You Hear Me?: Barbra Streisand’s voice crooned out her speakers and Sam dissolved into tears; maybe listening to the Yentl soundtrack on her first night alone wasn’t the wisest course.
83. Heal: The spring she broke her ankle was the most frustrating of her life as she watched her softball team play with out her.
85. Spiral: She can still remember the day she threw her first perfect pass with crystal clarity, from the sun dappling her face to the damp grass beneath her feet, from the roar of the air show jets going over her head to the bark of the neighbor’s startled dog.
86. Seeing Red: If Agent Ido asked her to ‘make a sammich’ one more time she was not going to be responsible for her actions.
88. Pain: She didn’t even feel the bullet graze her arm or the glass pepper her hands until she was finally sitting still in the ER.
89. Through the Fire: The colors of the campfire fascinated Sam so she and her cousins would throw different objects into the flames to see what color it would burn.
100. Relaxation: With each gear shift Sam shed a little more tension and by the time she hit 90 all her troubles, for the moment, were forgotten.

* Sam is comparing actresses in 39 because of the song 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Mis which they both sing (Ruthie's version, Lea's version).  So many of these prompts made me think of songs first, Sam second!
*69 is a true story.  I went bowling with my sister and a friend once and every frame I left one pin standing.  Different pins at different times but I never broke 9 a frame!  It was so annoying, even if I was laughing by the end.
*82 references 'Papa Can You Hear Me?' from Yentl.
* 83 & 85 Found out she played sports.  Huh.  Cool.
*89 FIRE!  Mwahahaha!  I'm a pyro.  So is Sam ... to a degree.