This week's prompt is: scrape Now let's see what you do with that!

Let's see what I can scrape together for a ficlet this week

DT, it looks like you scraped the bottom of the barrel for that joke!

Ken watched silently as Jun tended to Jinpei's leg, carefully washing the cuts and scrapes and gently placing bandages on each one. For his part, Jinpei sniffled quietly, attempting to 'man it up', but clearly grateful that his sister was there to look after him. Jun smiled softly, going about her work but clearly making an effort not to impugn Jinpei's sense of machismo through either word or action. Having raised him since he was a toddler, Jun knew exactly what made Jinpei ticked, and despite their fights, it was clear that she loved him fiercely. Jun had all of the characteristics of a great mother, and she deserved to have children someday. Ken just hoped that he would be there to be a part of it.

TJ: Aw.

Hope I'm not just scraping by with this latest installment ... lol! *** Based on the brief time that she and the guys spent on the island, she knew Red Impulse was an early riser and he did not disappoint her this morning either.  Jun sat up and stretched her arms over her head, as was her own habit, then looked around, trying to see if she could find where he had gone or if he was close by. When she didn't see him right away, she quickly got up, folded up the tarp and blanket and packed them back in their spots in the bike's storage compartment.  Then she took out her own clothes and quickly put them on, thrilling to finally be back in them.  Prudently, though, she put the sweatshirt and pants back on over her clothes. Now, she thought with a sort of grim satisfaction, if she had to, she could change into birdstyle.  Not that that was recommended, of course, but at least it was now an option again. She was still digging around in her bike's storage compartment when Red Impulse returned to their campsite, such as it was.  His appearance took Jun by surprise for a moment; she had never seen him looking anything less than crisp and polished and now here he was, in a rumpled track suit and a shadow of dark stubble across his cheeks.  For a moment, she did not even recognize him. "The factory is back that way," he informed her, "about a mile and a half."  Jun stared at him. "What time did you get up?" she asked.  He shrugged. "I don't know.  I didn't look.  Does it matter?" "Don't you ever sleep?" Red Impulse shrugged a shoulder.  "There'll be time enough to sleep when I'm dead."  He had said it with a light enough tone to convey that he was kidding, but Jun shivered, saddened at the thought.  There was enough death in the world without dwelling on it first thing in the morning. "I found some snacks," Jun said, changing the subject and holding out a granola bar to him.  "It's not a lot, but it's something." "Thank you," he said, taking it from her.  Wordlessly, she also handed him a bottle of water.  Jun was glad that she had listened to Nambu and continually made sure that her vehicle was equipped an up-to-date emergency kit that included a small bottle outfitted with a filter/purifier.  If they ran out of water, all they would have to do is find a stream and they could scrape by with just that, even without anything else.  That made her feel slightly better about the situation.  She was also glad that, in addition to the emergency kit, she made sure that she had a small stash of individually wrapped snack packs.  She kept them on hand for Jinpei, mostly because he was always hungry and got cranky whenever his blood sugar dipped.  Now those snacks seemed like a jackpot to her.  It was one thing to be bored all day; it was another thing to be bored and starving. "It looks like it's a twenty-four-hour facility," Red Impulse said as he polished off the last of the granola bar and crumpled the wrapper in his hand.  "I stayed long enough to watch a shift change, but that didn't tell me anything beyond the obvious.  The building is surrounded by chain link fence, topped with razor wire. There are two guard stations, at the east and west ends of the building.  I only saw one tractor trailer leave, but since it must have been already loaded -- or unloaded -- before I got there, I didn't get to see what was in it.  Mostly, I saw a lot of cars coming and going, probably your average workers.  If Parnell or whoever was chasing us last night is going to show up -- if at all -- it'll probably be later today." Jun stood up.  "So we're just going to watch the building all day?" "That's the broad plan." "Well, may as well get started then," Jun said, putting her now-empty bottle back in the storage compartment.  "No time like the present and all that." Red Impulse regarded her a moment and took a sip of his water.  "First, though, we have to come up with a strategy before we go charging over there." "Why would we need a plan just to watch a building?  It's not like it's going anywhere.  Or," a thought just occurred to her, "are we actually going in?" "No, we're not going anywhere near the building," Red Impulse immediately shot down that idea.  "All we're doing is waiting and watching." "For what?  Wouldn't it be better ...." "No, it would not.  What do you think spy work -- true spy work -- is, anyway?  It's not exciting, it's not glamorous, and it isn't fast.  Mostly, it consists of sitting and waiting and, if you're really lucky, someone will make a mistake and tip their hand." "But if we went in, we could ...." "Have you not been listening to anything I just said?  Spies collect information.  That's it.  That's all.  This isn't a retrieval mission and it was never meant to be, which means all we can do is collect whatever information we can get our hands on and relay it back to the ISO, where it can be analyzed and acted upon by others." He paused a moment, studying the mutinous look on her face, the off-set, defensive position of her body. "I find out that you decided to do something other than just observe, something stupid, Galactor will be the least of your problems," he warned. "It seems pointless to be this close and not just go that one step further." "Because that 'one step further' could be what gets you killed," Red Impulse countered.  He narrowed his eyes at her.  "First rule of spying -- never go into a situation cold.  Always find out as much as you can first and know how you're going to get out of it before going in." "You can't always know ...," Jun started to argue. "No, you can't," he agreed, "but you can minimize your odds.  Be smart about things.  All we know so far is just what we can see at the moment.  What did I just tell you about the building itself?" Jun thought a moment.  "It's surrounded by a fence." "Right.  And at this point, we don't know if it's just a regular fence or if it's electrified.  Better safe than fried, so we'll assume it has some kind of kick to it.  What else?" "It has two guard houses." "Which means?" Jun glared at him.  "Why does this feel like another interview?" "Am I to take that as you don't know?" "It means there are only two ways in or out ... unless there's another way that you can't see," she snapped back. "Very good," he said, taking a large swallow from his bottle. "Thank you." He looked at her with something approaching amusement in his eyes, the corner of his mouth lifted in a slight smile before he became all business once more. "There's nothing but forest for miles around, we saw that from our drive last night, so there are no nosy townspeople for them to deal with, which means, with any luck, they won't be quite as secretive about what they're doing than they would be otherwise." Jun frowned.  "Then where are the workers coming from?" "They probably commute in.  Half an hour, even an hour commute, isn't a lot for some people, especially if they have the incentive of being compensated well for the inconvenience."  Red Impulse looked up to the sky through the latticework of branches overhead.  "So that leaves us with two guard houses to watch, so long as we keep to the edge of the woods and stay out of sight.  I didn't see any guards patrolling, or any dogs, but you never know.  It's entirely possible that they have remote cameras surrounding the property as well, so stay low.  Anything happens, stay undercover and run if someone spots you.  Climb up a tree, do whatever you have to to not get caught, understand?" Jun nodded.  "Better than you know," she replied. "All right then," Red Impulse said, "we'll move out.  I'll take the east gate, you take the nearer west one." "What if ...," Jun hesitated, loathe to ask, "what if one of us gets into trouble?" "Do the best you can," Red Impulse said. "But suppose one of us needs to reach the other?" Red Impulse shook his head.  "There's no point and we'll be too far away to be of any help to each other in any case." "So we'll be completely on our own?" "Until we meet back here at, say, seven or so tonight, yes.  What's the matter?" he asked.  "You were willing to do this all alone before, so why does the thought of being alone now scare you?" "I'm not scared," she retorted immediately, lifting up her chin.  She instantly regretted the words and the action.  She felt like a five-year-old declaring her independence. "Good.  Then it's not a problem, is it?" he said, turning as his last words hung ominously in the air.

TJ -- cute

RI girl -- bottom line: always keep snacks handy (my motto)!

Wonder how this is gonna go wrong.

This is unrelated to the continuing storyline -- this came to me after seeing a snippet on The CBS Evening News. ========== "I'm sorry Jinpei." Dr. Nambu said as he sat behind his desk, "There's nothing I can do --" "Isn't there anybody in the ISO who can help?" the boy pleaded from the other side of the desk. "In this case, no." Jinpei stood there for a moment. His chin quivered, and his eyes began to well up with tears. "Well," he finally cried, "this is bullshit!" He stormed out of the room, nearly knocking Ken down as soon as the door opened. "Let him go, Ken!" the doctor called before the Eagle could scold Jinpei for the outburst. "What was that all about, Hakase?" Ken asked as he stepped into the room. Nambu pointed to a small paper cup containing several brightly-colored plastic shavings. "Jenpei wanted me to clone his Lego bricks." He chuckled a bit before adding, "But he'll just have to suffer through the worldwide shortage with everyone else."

EW: Aw poor Jinpei. Hakase better watch out. Desperate people do desperate things!

A shortage of Lego bricks? Noooooooooooooo!

Originally posted by Transmute Jun A shortage of Lego bricks? Noooooooooooooo!

It's true! It's true! The company announced they can't keep up with demand, so the shortage will really be felt this Christmas!

[unrecoverable text]

Still want to slap this Joe and this Nambu around.

It's sad that Joe can't admit to his many mistakes, even one of them. Also, I find it hard to believe they would reveal his identity to Stacy over this.