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No prob. I still think you should kill one of them off, though.

Maybe you could have Hoshi's family become really anti-war and thus, anti-Starfleet, so that causes grief. Or Malcolm's mom passes away (either in an accident or just natural causes) so now he has to interact with his dad again and discovers a hollow shell of a man or something. Or we find out that Hoshi's dad is a strict, strict guy who refuses to entertain the notion of his daughter marrying someone who isn't of Japanese origin ... so Reed has to either kill the guy and make it look like an accident or he has to convince the guy otherwise. Or the war reaches Earth and a Romulan nuke takes out the home of one of the two. How does that person react to the total massacre of their family? Do they go all dark and grim like Trip was trying to do, or do they curl up in a little ball?

Sigh. Somehow I'm not surprised that all of your plot twists somehow revolve around death and destruction, Rigil.

The hard-assed racist dad scenario is a serious possibility. So is the "shell of a man who realizes what he has only after it's gone" idea. Depressing, but certainly interesting. I don't think I'm gonna nuke 'em, though. I'm not quite ready to do that yet. Besides... been there, done that.

Distracted wrote:Somehow I'm not surprised that all of your plot twists somehow revolve around death and destruction, Rigil.

Death is a natural part of life so it's a given that characters will face it, particularly given that Earth is ostensibly in a war for its very survival. Only when facing death can one be truly alive. So there.

Sure. We all know this. I just don't feel like reading or writing about it for entertainment purposes. There's enough grief in the world without purposely imagining more just for the hell of it... So there, back! : P (It's not fair! Where'd you get the cool raspberry smiley?!)

Distracted wrote:: P (It's not fair! Where'd you get the cool raspberry smiley?!)

All sorts of places.

You just have to know how to get the neat smilies, Distracted... :banana:

Maybe I'll be nice and add some of the ones we have from the other board I'm a moderator at over here...

As for Malcolm & Hoshi, I'm actually getting a bit tired of the whole 'one parent/relative is a bigot' storyline myself. I'd rather have some other plot device used, after all, you did that with Trip's dad already, even if he did eventually see the light. Unless you plan to keep Hoshi's dad (or whoever you end out choosing) a bigot no matter what happens in the story... though then you'll end up with a situation where Hoshi may have to end up choosing between her family and Malcolm, which I'm not sure you want to do.

I see your point, jedikatie. Any other suggestions?

Ummm ... heh.

Hmmm.... well, perhaps you could have Hoshi see or hear something to bring back the trauma from what the Xindi did to her while at her parents' house or maybe Dolim planted another suggestion in her mind that no one knew about, to be triggered under certain conditions, to try and win the war even if the weapon failed. And when she starts doing suspicious little things (that most people wouldn't think twice about), Malcolm (and possibly one or both of her parents) begin to wonder what's going on... you could still get Section 31 involved in some way.

And, if you go with "the Dolim planted a trigger in her mind" bit, depending on what particular hidden threat the Reptilian Xindi might have left behind on Earth, you could still have the rest of the crew involved in some way. After all, there were those three Xindi reptilians in Detroit, but who knows if they were the only ones working on something? There might have been another group who wasn't detected by Daniels (or that he didn't mention) because the crew stopped Hoshi from carrying out their back-up plan a few centuries down the road, so history went on as it was supposed to...

Hmmm... I'd have to do some research. I must admit that I really didn't pay much attention to that particular storyline. I'm not even sure who Dolim is.

Big cliched lizard bad guy. Super!Archer fought him in that equally cliched final battle aboard the Xindi Death Star in Zero Hour.

Ah. Well, that explains it. I was sorta burned out on the whole Xindi thing by then.

Ironically, season 3 is my favorite season because of that final home stretch of episodes. Countdown remains my all time favorite episode (kick ass space battle, MACOs actually using some intelligent infantry tactics, T'Pol calling him Trip for the first time, more TnT miscommunication ... and in front of Archer no less!, and of course, Archer telling Polly to "keep him in line" which was a clear indication that he knows and is okay with TnT.) Sure, that arc had problems (Harbinger, for example, and the inane trellium D addiction), but I actually prefer it to the proliferation of Super!Archer we got in s4.

How about, during a shore leave or something (since you're not actually doing the war and all you could have Sec31 contact Reed and require him to ... eliminate someone. Now, in a scenario similar to the one in that Bridget Fonda remake of La Femme Nikita, he's got to take out the target while not letting Hoshi know that he's doing it ...

I'd like to see Hoshi get a chance to shine on her own as an independent heroine. Just my 2 cents.

I don't like the bigot parent story lines.

How about: Hoshi is recruited for a mission that she can't tell Malcolm about; her evasiveness leaves Malcolm wondering if he is free to move on. I think that has possibilities.