This is being posted a wee bit early for my time zone, but I'm sure there are enough people for whom it's already Sunday and are willing to forgive me. Anyway, this was submitted by the ever-prolific Anonymous. And the prompt is: pallid Go nuts with this one, gang!

I so hate to disappoint anyone, so my post is here.... http://www.gatchamania.net/thread.php?threadid=4666&sid=

This stems from #118 (Forgot), #120 (Allowance), #121.2 (Hang), #130 (Book), then #124 (Awesome): ***************************** Prompt# 138--Pallid --(same evening as #124). "Well, I gotta get going," Joe grunted as he pushed his empty beer bottle away and stretched lazily, arms over his head. "Yeah, me too." Ken mentioned looking briefly over his shoulder, at the windows that lined the front of the Snack. "It's starting to snow..." "You guys leaving?" Jun called from the kitchen, then came walking out with a dishtowel slung over her shoulder. Ken gestured toward the windows as he stood and shrugged into his coat. She leaned down, resting her elbows on the counter as she watched the flakes fall, "I hope Jinpei gets back before the roads become too bad..." "Well, Ryu will drop him off, right?" he asked, buttoning his coat. At that moment, the door opened, bringing with it a rush of frigid air and Ryu, carrying a bundled up Jinpei in his arms. Snow swirled into the eatery and dotted the big man's hair and coat. "What happened!" Jun exclaimed, dropping the dishtowel on the counter as she rushed over to them. Her remaining customers watched the scene with curiosity, pausing their conversations. Ken followed her, wrapping his scarf about his neck, concern on his face as he stared at Jinpei's pallid features. "Wow, the kid looks like crap...." Joe stated, fishing his keys out from his jacket pocket. "He's sick. Got a fever too, I think." Ryu told them, shifting Jinpei's weight in his arms. "Came on all of a sudden." Jun reached out and felt Jinpei's forehead. "He's definitely got a fever...he's burning up. Let's get him upstairs Ryu..." She spoke a quick word to one of the waitresses, who nodded and began to write up the final tabs for the evening. "Later guys....." Ryu offered nodding to Ken and Joe, who slapped his shoulder, as he pushed past them, following Jun to the apartment upstairs. "Didn't mean it...." Jinpei mumbled in his sleep, as he tossed and turned. "Wanted to see....toes.." "Jinpei...you're dreaming..." Jun told him quietly, wringing out the washcloth that had been across his forehead. "Lasers....no scars..." Jun clucked her tongue as she replaced the washcloth with a fresh cool one. Poor thing. He was delirious; caught in some kind of strange dream. The next morning: "Well at least your appetite's returned." Jun commented, noting the canned broth and crackers she had brought him were almost gone. "Feeling better I guess?" Jinpei nodded. "Just tired..." "You were pretty sick Jinpei. Thank goodness the fever finally broke toward morning." she told him. "But all night you kept babbling about toes....and them being cut off, leaving no scars. And you kept saying you were sorry..." "I did?" ?" he asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. Jun chuckled, as she took away the empty soup bowl from his nightstand and placing it on a serving tray. "I'll say! You must've been having some kind of crazy fever dream..." "Oh it wasn't a dre....." Jinpei started to say, then suddenly stopped when he realized what he was doing. "Of course it was." Jun laughed turning to leave. "What else could it be..." When he didn't answer her by the time she reached the door, she looked at him from over her shoulder. Her brother was doing his best not to look at her, and was staring at the end of the bed, wiggling his feet nervously. "Jinpei? What else could it be?" At those words, his gaze wandered across the room and he slid a little lower in the bed. Something wasn't right. She did find it odd that he was yammering on about toes, especially after everything that had happened over the last few weeks with her socks and Jinpei acting weird in general. What the hell was going on here? she wondered, as she studied him. And why did she have a bad feeling about this? Jun set the tray down on the desk and stood over the bed. "Jinpei?" she asked frowning, hands on her hips. "Do you have something to tell me?" He had pulled the sheets all the way up so only his brown eyes peeked out over the edge. "What did you do?" she sighed in exasperation, sitting on the corner of the bed and crossing her legs. "It wasn't my fault!" he croaked, voice slightly muffled. "I didn't do anything....." Oh that sealed it. "Jinpei, I think you better tell me everything....."

RB -- I hope Joe's got a good hiding place!

Redbird: LOL, I can't wait to see how Jun responds to this.

Yeah. This is going to be gooooood.

But will Jinpei actually tell her, or try to pull the wool over her eyes? More please RB!

Thanks for reading everyone! There will be more very shortly!

SO Jinpei cut off his own toes? Yikes! Or maybe someone else's toes...?

TJ -- Joe, as a joke, told Jinpei that Jun had 6 toes on each foot, not expecting Jinpei to become obsessed over seeing Jun's "abnormality". (Of course, Joe had Jinpei swear to secrecy.) Anyway, things were getting out-of-hand, so, when Jun had to stay overnight at the Crescent Coral Base, Joe told Jinpei that Jun was having the extra digits removed. (Laser surgery, so there wouldn't be any scars whatsoever.)

Originally posted by ElectricWhite TJ -- Joe, as a joke, told Jinpei that Jun had 6 toes on each foot, not expecting Jinpei to become obsessed over seeing Jun's "abnormality". (Of course, Joe had Jinpei swear to secrecy.) Anyway, things were getting out-of-hand, so, when Jun had to stay overnight at the Crescent Coral Base, Joe told Jinpei that Jun was having the extra digits removed. (Laser surgery, so there wouldn't be any scars whatsoever.)

Wow, I really don't remember any of this...

LOL. There's a list of prompts that this whole thing started with, at the beginning of my post TJ.

Originally posted by Redbird LOL. There's a list of prompts that this whole thing started with, at the beginning of my post TJ.

I've been away for most of the summer and I know I missed 3 (non-consective) weeks or so, but I'm pretty sure I've read some of those... don't remember anything about toes, though. I'll have to go look back!