Plotline So far, this is me talking to myself. Putting an idea in print can help you form it up, or, alternatively, decide it's crap and discard it before you waste more time on it. With permission, I'd like to put up at least excerpts from email and conversation with others, meaning mostly you clubbies, showing how some things came about through mutual efforts.

So, the bomb is disarmed, the dead are buried . . . now what?

Hmmm . . . Kaidou's visit to Rei could have more implications. Yoko will learn of it, of course, and Yoko's father is the PM. The Japanese government does not know who the senshi are, so Makoto will get no special treatment for being one. Hino-san will be working for her, but perhaps the PM will be turned against him because of Kaidou.

Martin Tiggs would still be on shaky ground with the Bureau for not revealing the senshi to them. Nevertheless he might be offered a return slot, at the request of the senshi, and because he knows the senshi. But that would mean moving him from Orlando before Shaw can be found out. And I still haven't figured out how Shaw will be found out.

Maybe Tiggs will go back to the Bureau eventually, but he's not ready now. Is there something interesting he could be doing in Orlando? A nice murder mystery might be the thing; Shaw could be involved, too, this time on the right side of the law.

It's established in MTV that the Founder returns by August, so he should be able do devote at least some attention to Mako's problem.

Maybe the Grey Lady's world is cut off again . . . a time-slip, perhaps?

How about this twist: Weaselly Uncle Giro actually gets Makoto and her kids out of a scrape . . . but it turns out he's been paid off two ways to do it, one of them from an agent of Swainson--the shadowy Patterson would be appropriate.

If Makoto stays in jail, we just about have to shift the viewpoint to Zoë, Tammy and Philip. If she gets out, there is the problem of how she gets all her kids together--there is no way she would trust Uncle Giro without checking up on them. And it will not take that long for word to get to the other senshi.

How long would it take for the other senshi to start looking for the children? A microsecond if Chibi Moon is in the picture, and not much longer for the holder senshi to do it. So, we have an anomaly here . . .

The new moon of October, 2009 is on the 18th. Possibly it might be possible to open a gate on Halloween? Halloween is significant in connection with the appearance of the Templars on Yrth, a connection you clubbies won't know about unless you have checked out my other site at http://members.nbci.com/da_alvarson. Anyway, if Zoë is missing it would be of especial interest to Nancy, who was very close to her mother.

The next new moon would be on November 17. Perhaps it would be better to split Mako's Run before the encounter with Haruna-sensei and have Uncle Giro show up after Halloween?

Could Benicia keep her secret from the senshi through and after her visit to the house? Possibly her telepathy is subtler than Sarah's or Usagi's, less likely to be detected. Usagi would have a reason to be extra-careful about using her power to probe minds after the White House incident, and Sarah would feel pressure from Pleione not to do anything that might scare her new friend.

January 21, 2001

"Return of the Senshi" approximates how I want the intermediate crisis resolved, but it hasn't been filled in yet. One thing that needs work is the timing. Mako has to be arrested after the sleepover on Halloween, which means it has to be at least Monday, November 2, in California when the children vanish.

Once the children disappear, and once the senshi know about it, they are going to look for them--so they don't know because Makoto thinks Zoe can keep them safe for awhile? No, she has to know Uncle Giro is hiding them. She just would not stay in custody if she knew they were in danger, or didn't get word on them.

So, what time is it in Tokyo vs. California?

Japan, 4:47am is California, 11:47am. hmm, that would mean the Chibi Sailors had been searching for three hours?

Let's get back to the basics. Let's say the raid on the Ayakashi apartment happened at 5 am, which would be noon the previous day in California, thanks to the International Date Line. If it happened on Monday morning in Japan (likely) it would have still been Sunday in California, and Benicia would still be still be at the mansion. Think she would notice something was up?

Actually, the raid can take place no later than Tuesday Morning in Japan because Torumatsu stops off "on the way home" the night before, implying that it's a workday. That would be noon in California, but the news wouldn't necessarily make it to California instantly unless Makoto managed to use her communicator, which would probably have been confiscated soon after her arrest.

The tax people would arrest the Ayakashi, too, at least for awhile, wanting to get anything on Torumatsu. Which means, I guess, that the Wakagis take their kids too--that sounds like something Sakurada-sama could get done.

One person who is going to get word that the Yount children are involved in the case pretty soon is Hino-san, Rei's father--this is something that would reach him whether or not Rei has instilled an interest in the case because it has political implications.

I'd hate to lose the scene where the chibi sailors find Philip, but there's something knawing at my mind. Why on earth would he be left alone? Zoe wouldn't stand for it unless there was a really compelling reason; she doesn't trust Uncle Giro from the first.