legends_holiday:

All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween as it has been come to be called, is a popular holiday with children and adults alike. It is a holiday that had its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or Summer's End. Samhain celebrated the end of the "lighter half" of the year and the beginning of the "darker half".

On this evening the barriers between this world and the Otherworld were believed to be thin and the spirits, good and bad, of the dead could pass through. The spirits of the family's ancestors were welcomed in while evil and bad spirits were warded off by the wearing of masks and costumes. The costumes and masks disguised one as a harmful spirit and avoided harm from others.

It was also a harvest celebration and time to take stock of food stores for the winter. Livestock were slaughtered and the meat prepared for storage. It was the final harvest of the year and the crops were then stored for the winter. Celebrations included bonfires and tales of the family's ancestors.

It was a celebration of the dead and of the harvest.

Today we dress up in scary and not so scary costumes and masks and go door to door for candy or attend costume parties. It is a night for revelry, pranks and fun.

omega_phoenix:

Dr. McCoy hadn't been able to discern anything wrong with Jean and that itself was disconcerting.  She'd had Cerebro try to check her out as well, but she still read with the same mutant powers she'd always had.  That was even weirder.  No one visibly seemed much bothered and Jean decided not to probe into minds of her friends and team to see what they were really thinking, but there was an uneasiness.  Something wasn't right and she knew it which is why she decided her best bet to get to the bottom of the issue was to try to recreate it.  She'd asked Scott to meet her in the Danger Room.  Any other X-Man who wanted to come was invited as well, but with the caveat that things could get really weird.  She wasn't sure who would show up and with that other bit of uncertainty in mind, she waited for others to arrive so they could get this party started.

omega_phoenix:

The headache she'd had for the past two days had finally abated and Jean decided that since it was gone, it was a fine day to do some practice.  She felt weak since she'd return and she accounted for it in her sad amount of training.  Abilities were one thing, but you had to use them to be good with them.  She knew that and she knew that she'd simply gotten lazy, her mind turning flabby like an ab or an arm might.  She left Scott a note to let him know where she was--he'd been sleeping and while she could crawl into his head anytime she wanted, notes were still a sweet way to communicate--and then took off for the Danger Room.

A full-service workout was what she wanted so she started with low level drills.  Kid stuff, really, the kind of things they started students on.  Of course they were easily beaten and she steadily worked on more and more complicated scenarios, but instead of defeating them soundly, Jean had...trouble.  For the fourth simulation in a row, her telekineses failed, leaving her for dead in the simulation.  Suddenly, the room shut down.  It was the failsafe they had installed, but now an alert would be sent out that someone was practicing and in over their head.

And Jean should not have been in over her head.

red_eye_cyke:

Typically, Scott Summers maintained an open door policy to his office, when he wasn't teaching or otherwise occupied with duties as leader of the X-Men, and today was no exception.  He was at his desk, the computer displaying various student files, while he scratched at the notepad in front of him with a pen, occasionally adding a name to it.

The fact of the matter was, while they had numerous students, the eye had been to simply providing them training in controlling their abilities and providing them with a quality education.  The other fact of the matter was, the world was not going to necessarily allow that.  He'd been an X-Man for most of his life, and it seemed like he would continue to be one until it killed him. 

The new generation had to come from somewhere.

He looked over the names he had written so far.   Hisako Ichiki.  Sofia Mantega, Julian Keller.  Megan Gwenn.  There were a few other possibilities too.  Santo Vaccarro, perhaps, or Victor Borkowski.   Sooraya Qadir remained a posibility as well. 

Picking children to send off to battle.

Was this truly the right thing to do?