I'll keep this short. This week's prompt is: spook Enjoy!

Um.... I think this is the wrong forum for this, EW...

Yeah, you're not the first to point out my goof, TJ. I've asked Cep to help me fix this.

You can always say that this was a "spoof"!

I don't think there's anything wrong with it though, IMO it's a perfectly legitimate prompt word, probably chosen specifically for Halloween week. Can someone please explain why EW's goofed by posting it?

It was posted in the "General Discussion" forum by accident.

ah, ok, I hadn't noticed, thanks RB.

I'm not feeling very spooky right now. My in-laws are visiting, so I've had more spookiness than i can handle over the past few days.

[unrecoverable text]

TJ: Eek, good luck! I'm fortunate in that my inlaws are pretty benign. I find my own family far more stressful.

Ah my work here is done.

Thanks, Cep, for taking care of the forum issue! ...And thank you for not holding the fact that I'm not perfect beyond perfection against me!

Very interesting, Chris. This certainly isn't the Ken we've come to know in canon. I'm curious to see what it is about his background that you think made him this way, not to mention where he learned his fighting skills.

Yeah, I'm trying hard to keep him an AU Ken and not completely un-Ken him. It's all gonna be about the backstory.

They made physical contact, so Ken can't be a ghost. A little innuendo and Joe is furious. I'm really enjoying this, CW.

Originally posted by ChrisW Mild warning: Joe's annoyed so this is somewhat profanity-laden. Heh.

I wouldn't expect anything else from Joe! Wow! That is sooo unlike "canon" Ken! LOL. All about the backstory, eh? Can't wait to see what you have in store for us. And I wonder what the heck is going to happen when Ken meets Adam. More trouble perhaps?

Here's my bit for this week. I think most of you should get this. LOL. ******* Prompt #96 --Spook "Jinpei, what is that?" Jun questioned from behind the bar, spying a paper shopping bag on one of tables in the Snack J. "It's my costume, sis!" Jinpei exclaimed excitedly, pulling the bag off the table and bringing it over, swinging it by his side. "Costume for what?" she asked curiously. "Aren't you too old to be 'trick or treating' "? She shot him an admonishing look, as she wiped out a dirty glass. "Huh? No, not for 'trick or treating'!" he dug into his pocket, and pulled out a crumpled bit of brightly colored paper. Grinning madly he shoved it in her direction, indicating she should take it. "There's a party at the recreation center downtown!" Jun carefully unfolded it atop the bar, smoothing the paper down with her hand. "Oh a Halloween Party!" she laughed, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Yeah! Wanna see what I bought?" he asked, hand already disappearing into the bag. "I'm going to win the 'Best Costume' contest for sure!" Jun frowned as Jinpei pulled out a set of rubber pointed elf-like ears, a light blue shirt emblazoned with a shiny silver inverted "V" on the left breast, and a pair of black pants. He stood there beaming at her, obviously thrilled with his purchase. "Well?" he urged. "What do you think?" Confused, she stared down at the party flyer again. It read: "Come as your favorite spook! Enter our 'Best Costume Contest' and win a prize!" Jun squashed down the laughter rising in her throat. Jinpei was so happy with his costume, she just didn't have the heart to tell him. Clearing her throat, she handed the flyer back to him. "I'm sure you'll be the talk of the party, Jinpei."

Oh, that kid just can't win!

Redbird: LOL poor Jinpei yet again fails reading comprehension.

I know, I know! I felt terrible about writing it, but I just couldn't resist!

Oh, don't feel bad, Jinpei's at the right age to make these kinds of mistakes, and he has a lot of priorities that keep him away from bookwork.

Originally posted by ChrisW Redbird: LOL poor Jinpei yet again fails reading comprehension.

I am not sure that is reading comprehension he is failing at .... after all he is doing very well reading between the lines .... he is just having problems with the words he is reading. Sorry that is the teacher in me coming out. Poor kid!

Well that just shows how poor my terminology comprehension is.

Redbird -

Originally posted by ChrisW Oh, don't feel bad, Jinpei's at the right age to make these kinds of mistakes, and he has a lot of priorities that keep him away from bookwork.

I agree Jinpei is an easy target, he wouldn't spend nearly enough time with schoolwork as regular kids might, but then, regular kids wouldn't be able to do a fraction of the stuff Jinpei excells at.. Chris - I'm starting to like this 'new' Ken, relaxed and carefree and a sense of humour too, but still more than a match for Joe.

Redbird, too funny! And in keeping with the theme... Hmmm, Nambu should get him some special ed help...

...Or maybe Jinpei just needs to slow down and read the entire word before acting. (That's one problem my grand nephew Chris had -- he'd just look at the first couple of letters and assume he knew what the word was....when he got it wrong, it was REALLY wrong!)

The crazy thing is, is that I can actually picture him running around in a Spock costume! (And doing the arched eyebrow thing).

Only Jinpei could make that mistake, but as Jun said, he should be the hit of the party.

Nice use of the prompt, Chris & Redbird! Becky, why can't Ken be a ghost? Are there rules about physical contact? OK, here's mine. I normally don't write anything Gatch so I'm not sure where this came from: --- I flopped down on my bed. Never again, I thought, gritting my teeth. I am going to kill her. Jun had set me up. Yet another disastrous date. This one was worse than the Galactor spies trying to woo me and kill me. As if I wasn't spooked enough by the women in my life. There was a rap on the trailer door. I tried to ignore it, but my caller was insistent. Bang-bang-bang. A sing-song voice called out, "Joey-Pooh? I know you're in there!" How in the hell did she get here so fast? I had broken the speed limit several times over racing away from the J, even in the pouring rain. How did she manage to follow me? "Joseph. It's cold. And wet. Let-me-in!" As she stamped her high heels, her voice rang with despair and anger. No way in hell. Trusting my voice would carry, I called from the back, "Date's over, Sonia. Go home." "Joey, I ..." Her voice stopped abruptly and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was wrong. Was she crying? Exasperated, I threw my feet to the floor and stalked to the front door. Whipping it open revealed a small, wet flower on my porch. I picked it up and studied it, but there wasn't much to see. There was nothing else, not even a note. I raked my eyes over the area around my trailer, looking for clues. No tire tracks in the mud. Come to think of it, no muddy footprints either. In fact, everything looked dry. I shivered. The rain appeared to be long gone; the sky was clear under a full moon. How long had I been asleep? I didn't remember sleeping. Had I been asleep? Puzzled, I looked down at the flower in my hand. Blackened, it crumbled through my fingers like ash. I jumped and swore. This did not look good.

Oh jublke, you do Gatch well. I love how Joe's almost more freaked out by a date set up by Jun than by the others who tried to kill him, and it turns out maybe he should be a little worried! And Joey-Poo!!! Somehow that begs someone else to be calling out Kennie-Pie. I can see the two of them hiding in terror from their dates. *snicker* Of course, it's possible that Jun wasn't trying to be nice when she set Joe up. Did he do something to piss her off?

with CW--I thought you handled Gatch just fine! Joey-Pooh?! Good lord man, run away! Far away! A flower. Hmmm. "Ghosts of Devil-Stars Past" perhaps? Or something more. (Oooh and the idea of Ken being a wraith or something is very interesting...)

Julie, you've got a knack for Gatch! (And Joey-Pooh?! !!!)

Hmm.... a yellow flower that crumbles to black, and woman who is there but leaves no footprints... sounds spooky to me!

Hopefully Joe will figure it out because I'm sure its going to drive him nuts otherwise. I'm not aware traditional ghosts can take corporal form, Julie, but I'll have to research that.

Originally posted by Becky Rock I'm not aware traditional ghosts can take corporal form, Julie, but I'll have to research that.

It's just like our fanfic: if we want to know something about which there is no information, we can make it up. Since ghosts don't really exist, you can have them do whatever you want in your story, even if it's not 'traditional'. Just ask Stephanie Meyer, who re-defined the 'traditional' vampire (for better or for worse).

[unrecoverable text]

CW: A very witty Ken! I like him! RB: Okay, I admit it took me a couple of reads to get the point, but, once I did, I was ROFLMAO! It was the light blue shirt that confused me -- when we had it on TV, it was still black and white

Jublke -- yup, definitely spooky! Hopefully you plan to write more on this (hint, hint). EW: YEAH! I read this also! Can you believe it? No wonder Katse's freaking out, we all should be freaking out! Where's that nice Bordeaux to calm my nerves? (DT heads running to the kitchen for a bottle and a glass). Cheers!

You know, DT, I could recommend several fine bourbons that could get you through this horrendous crisis....

That was great EW! More Galactor Rats will be flung (or perhaps deep fried) if he doesn't get his alcohol. What's next for him? A cigarette shortage? (And I read about the wine shortage too--good thing I don't drink it! It leaves more for you guys! LOL). DT: Glad you liked it, it was fun to write.

RB, I would just LOVE a cigarette shortage! As I'm getting older, I get more and more intolerant of smokers (don't take it personally if you're a smoker, though!)

Yeah it's nice to be able to go to a bar or restaurant without feeling like I'm gonna suffocate or getting a headache. (smoking bans)

OK, for my contribution this week, I'm going to back to my favourite -- ok, my only -- OC, Dr. Sarah Petrides, Centre Neptune scientist and, after a long series of Bradbury's prompts, Anderson's romantic interest. For those who haven't read the previous installments, this takes place just before the war. //Sarah popped her head in Anderson's office. "How's it going?" He looked up from the complicated report he was studying. Why did people insist on using three words when one would do? "Okay, I guess. No news from Cronus, and Spectra has not attacked...yet..." "Let's enjoy it while we can. Coffee at my place later?" He nodded. They way things were going, even a cup of coffee outside the office would make a nice change of scenery. "The kids ok?" He knew what she meant. They had been worried at how G-Force would react to their announcement that they were "seeing each other". To be more blunt, they were worried at how much G-Force would laugh at this announcement and the amount of ribbing they would take. But Anderson, clever bastard that he was, had outwitted them and forced them to behave. So Mark and Jason had limited their snorts and giggles to when -- as they thought -- he was not within earshot. Princess had refrained from trying to offer Sarah "advice" about how to handle Anderson, and Tiny had not once mentioned it when he had to ferry the Chief to Riga and back in the Phoenix. And Keyop was careful not to make puking sounds every time he would see them kissing surreptitiously. Yeap, the plan was working. But for how long? "They seem to be handling the situation better than I expected. Or they are so worried about losing the priviledge of being considered adults that they don't dare challenge me," he laughed. "That's ok though, they challenge me about everything else. I just wonder for how long they can be civil around you." Sarah looked at him. "Jack Anderson, are you trying to spook me with those little monsters you call your foster kids?" He got up and went to to the door, drew Sarah inside and closed it behind him. He knew she was joking. She loved the five teenagers and had been there with him as they were growing up. He understood that, under her flippancy, she was trying to hide how nervous she was about the war. About the fact that very soon these five teenagers would be on the first line of duty. "Dr. Sarah Petrides, I doubt anything and anyone could spook you. But let's make sure the door to your quarters is locked, shall we?"//

Daniella - Nice installment. I hadn't realized that your OC takes place before the war. I wonder what will become of Sarah & Anderson's relationship after the war starts?

Jublke -- I have to remind myself about the timelines, I'm sure I've messed it up at some point, but it doesn't matter I guess, unless I try to tie it all up in one story.

Daniella: I am terrible with timelines. It all makes so much more sense in my head! LOL

DT: It's good that they're nervous about sending these teens out to actually fight in a war. Proves that they care. I suck at timelines too. Heck, I suck at tracking time/dates in real life, so it's no surprise. I've resorted to making timeline notes at the beginning of scenes (I use Scrivener so I do it in the notecard section). I choose some kind of starting date or scene that should be day 0 and then note the difference in each scene. For example, the 2nd scene of my new serial with the "happy" Ken has the note "3 days later" (referring to scene 1 being day 0) and the 3rd scene has the note: "+ 1 1/2 weeks (11 days) total 14 days (2 weeks)" I started doing this in an original fic because I was constantly messing myself up with how much time had passed and there's lots of time-sensitive stuff. I even used a timeline program to make a chart. Normally I don't go that far.

Oh, DT I liked this! Poor Anderson, trying to have a life along with raising those kids! Love the description of their reactions to Sarah, especially Keyop. That's totally typical reaction from a kid!

Originally posted by Daniella T RB, I would just LOVE a cigarette shortage! As I'm getting older, I get more and more intolerant of smokers (don't take it personally if you're a smoker, though!)

Nope don't smoke, so no worries! (And the sulfites in wine do a number on me....LOL). Ohhh, lets not get started with timelines......*snort*

DT -- now I wonder what the chief and Sarah are gonna do now....

I think it's very realistic that they'd be so tentative, given Anderson has 4 almost-grown foster children and one precocious pre-teen!

EW- the smiley had me in stitches! I've never seen it before!

EW - I hadn't read that. Since I don't drink - even though I'm sorely tempted at times - even if I'd heard, it probably would have gone over my head. DT - Nice to see Sarah back. I like that she knows the team and what they will be doing and will be able to share Anderson's worry over them.

[unrecoverable text]

KT: Hopefully Connie will be okay. Why is it that the phrase "Ken's out?" makes me imagine him being let out of or escaping an asylum? Heh.

Lol, Chris, I'd think it would feel like being let out of an asylum after a such a long hospital stay! As for Connie, I don't think I'd want to hang around for long if I was in that situation either.

Joe is going to have to make up for his blunder. Hope they get there in time to help Ryu and Ken.

[unrecoverable text]

That is a good point, CD, and it's precisely why Ken chose to dress as Katse, since there was a strong possibility that no one in the camp would have met Katse himself in person, but they would recognise the image of him well enough.

Hmm ... my slowing mind has just informed me that I've skipped this prompt during my catching up endeavor, and that I've commented on the Bradbury's Jar Prompt 97 before this one! Fortunately, I wasn't put off-track, and I hope I wouldn't put any one of you, too! CW ... I'm even more intrigued than before on encountering the new aspects you've attributed to Ken's character, and cannot wait to see how you'd keep this character different from the Ken we know but similar to him, at the same time, in the long run! RB ... as soon as you've mentioned the costume items, I immediately knew where you were going! Great use of the prompt! Jinpei never learns! Julie ... that really speaks "spooky"! Like RB, a Devil Star thought immediately popped into my mind! EW ... I'm crying with Katse, right now! Not that I'm a heavy drinker, but a glass of wine, every now and then, helps me a lot! Thankfully there are substitutes, just in case! As for cigarettes ... I wouldn't mind that, at all! DT ... it's nice to see Sarah and Anderson's story back! Their love towards the team is undoubtedly and heartwarmingly visible! KT ... oh, yes ... Joe has to do his utmost to sew things back in order! I agree with CD regarding Ken's health! It shouldn't have been that easy for him to recover that quickly after such a trauma! TJ ... hope the creepiness that your parents-in-law might have carried into your house with them has by now dissipated!

She'd show them this time. She wasn't going to let a few well-placed plastic spiders spook her away from the training session again. Sure, she had had a deeply-ingrained fear of bugs for as long as she could remember, but she had to face her fear. She didn't know how they found out, but she suspected that her adopted "little brother" had told them. The boys snickered and whispered as she entered the gym. She stopped a few steps beyond the doorway and took a deep breath. Then she retrieved her good luck charm, a pink hair ribbon, and pulled her ebony locks back into a ponytail. That ribbon was the only thing she owned from her life before the orphanage. She was told that she had been wearing it in her hair when she arrived. She repeated her mantra over and over again as she stepped closer to the mat. "You are a trained ninja. You can do this." The raven-haired boy with the beautiful blue eyes stepped onto the mat with her. "We're sorry," he said. "It's customary to do some mild hazing when someone joins the program. We didn't realize you would take it that hard. Your little brother told us about your fear of bugs after it was too late." A small smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth. "That's okay," she winked as she took on a fighting stance. "But paybacks are a bitch."

I like the drawing as well as the vignette. Boys do tend to give each other a hard time. I can see that happening.

Thanks, Chris! Yeah, hazing is typical with young boys and I guess they wanted to treat her like "one of the guys"...only, it backfired on them! I was just reading everyone else's contributions, so here are my thoughts: Chris: Spooky! You have me wondering about this Ken,too. Is this the real Ken? Redbird: Bwahahaha! Maybe Jinpei could be a "spooky Spock zombie"! LOL! Jublke: Yes, I can see why Joe would be totally spooked by that girl! Jun must've had it out for him! EW: Love it! This reminds me of the episode where Katse is totally plastered and is talking to the goons. He was spooked by the SNT in that episode, too, now that I think about it! Daniella: Great scene! I could imagine this happening at the beginning of a BOTP movie! KT: Sounds like Joe, Jun and Jinpei have a lot on their plate! Hope they can save everyone else!

Originally posted by Springie Thanks, Chris! Yeah, hazing is typical with young boys and I guess they wanted to treat her like "one of the guys"...only, it backfired on them!

Not just young boys.

Springie ... like CW I loved both your vignette and picture ... you've drawn the latter in such a natural style! I think that, despite the treatment, she must have liked the idea that they had treated her like they would have done with anyone else ... she could then have integrated herself better, especially when showing them what she was made of!

Just realised there are a few pieces I've not commented on...... Jublke - spooky indeed. did Jun really set him up for disaster, or was she acting with the best intentions? EW- I don't drink, so I wouldn't be worried by a wine shortage, although I know a few people would be bothered by it. DT - Great piece, glad to see you're continuing with your Sarah/Anderson romance, keep it going please? Springie - Love the pic, now let Jun show them what she's really capable of..... Hope I haven't missed anyone out, my apologies if I have....

Oooh, Jun's either gonna kick Ken's butt or give them payback in the form of her own prank! That'll teach them Springie! Love the pic as usual, good work! And Springie, zombie Spock is....illogical.

Springie, I love the little ficlet you wrote to go with your picture! It really explains the worried expression on her face! And I can imagine that Jun would get over her fear of bugs, given how many she will face in the future!

You go, Jun! Lovely pic, Springie. June looks very determined. I wouldn't want to be the guys when she enacts her revenge.

Springie -- What can I say? Awesome, as usual!