December 2005

Amanda Sefton and Remy LeBeau both left the mansion with Tante Mattie for New Orleans, in the wake of the events of Lost In The Woods and Hellfire and Damnation. Madelyn Bartlet and Hank McCoy (with Billy in tow) also left, Madelyn a few days before Hank in order to care for her father who was suddenly taken ill. Dr. Amelia Voght arrived to become the full time medical doctor, given the departure of two of the medlab staff. Jubilation Lee left to go live in New York with her boyfriend David and continue her training at the police academy.

Nathan Dayspring, Cain Marko, Pete Wisdom and Alison Blaire eventually tracked down Gideon Faraday and the captive Domino, after a series of clues left by Nathan’s deceased mother. Domino almost killed Pete, not realising he was no longer a bad guy, and he barely managed to use the telepathic trigger to undo the false memories Charles Xavier had given her to protect Pete’s mission. Gideon and Nathan faced off, but a tranquiliser dart fired by Nathan’s father took him out of the contest before he could kill his uncle. Alison discovered the laptop recovered held a number of files on mutant training camps in Africa, and she also found a letter to Nathan from his mother, connecting her with Mother Askani.

Tommy Jones, after several encounters with students, attempted suicide but was stopped by Jean Grey. Shiro Yoshida was moved into his suite in order to stop him being so isolated, and he eventually began to accept his new life as a mutant, although his lack of repentance for being a member of the Friends of Humanity caused several arguments in the mansion, especially between Theresa Cassidy and her friends when she stood up for Tommy. Kyle Gibney was grounded for his part in Tommy’s breakdown, and Scott Summers attempted to chastise Manuel de la Rocha for his wrongdoings, but the empath refused to see the error in his actions and it was agreed upon that he would leave the school after his graduation.

Nathan’s investigation of his South East Asia mystery continued, and the X-Men paid a visit to the Brotherhood of Mutants in Hawaii, destroying Toad's latest invention and obtaining a list of emergent telepaths from Quicksilver during the distraction. The mission was Lorna Dane's first since the events of With Malice Aforethought and she began reconsidering her decision to leave the team. Her life was further complicated when Alex Summers - Phase 1 proposed to her at Christmas.

Terry recorded a traditional Irish song for her father’s Christmas gift. Her relationship with Bobby Drake continued to be rocky, which him reacting badly to her friendship with her ex, Tommy. The situation was inflamed by Bobby’s discovery that his younger brother was sympathetic to the FOH. Kyle and Jay Guthrie came out about their relationship and Alison and Haroun al-Rashid did something highly mysterious regarding theirs.

Marius Laverne continued to have problems with his mutation, although training with Catseye enabled him to learn to control his instincts. A new lightshow manifested by Alison without warning was too much for Nathan, given the tangible reminder of Askani, and he finally returned to Jack Leary for a long-overdue therapy session. Haroun continued to have teething problems with the new ‘ware and Rachel showed a talent for escaping, flying through the halls of the mansion on several occasions.

Timeline

Dec. 1 – Skeleton Coast: Nathan and the others reach Luederitz, the next site on Esther's map, and find out that Gideon is a step ahead of them - and was a step ahead of Esther, as well; later, Nathan and Pete share a moment of frustration out on the balcony of the hotel, staring into the fog; a subject they're going to have to talk about at some point comes up, but then the future intervenes; Alison and Nathan finally get the chance to talk, at least about the matter at hand; there's a lot more not-talking on other topics. Miles checks on Lorna during a sunstorm, helps her cook, and lets slip that Alison is recording again. No Way Out: Tommy runs into Manuel - or Empath - who gives him a 'gift'. Jamie recruits help to teach Catseye about video games. Scott declares that he will not be doing a Jack Sparrow impression, eyepatch or no eyepatch - but will, however, be eating his grandmother's highly alcoholic rum cookies. Marius posts about the latest development with his mutation, and runs a poll of who in the mansion has long-range passive powers.

Dec. 2 – No Way Out: Tommy finally comes out of his room for food, at the same moment Jay decides it's mid day snack time; unstable after his run-in with Tommy, Jay receives some support from Forge. Skeleton Coast: Nathan, Pete, Cain and Alison arrive at the Eris camp outside in the desert, and the Eris personnel promptly run away; Alison, though she doesn't find Domino, makes some headway of a very unexpected sort; Domino, still in her cell when chaos breaks out, seizes the first opportunity to escape. Thankfully (given the content of Nathan's vision) she doesn't get very far and she's not quite as happy to see Pete as she should be, at least not right away; outside, Cain and Nathan spot Gideon; Cain and Nathan chase Gideon; Gideon finds himself in the position of facing a furious, psimitar-bearing telekinetic out in the open where Nathan doesn't have to worry about collateral damage; the cavalry arrives; Nathan is drugged by his father to prevent him killing Gideon; the laptop Alison liberated turns out to contain potentially invaluable information about the network of training camps for young mutants that Eris helped set up in Africa; later, Alison brings Nathan the letter she found. A number of questions get answers, and yet more are raised. Lost in the Woods: In the boathouse, Remy tries to come to grips with betrayal; Doug, Marie-Ange and Jubilee get a surprise visitor... or maybe not so much of a surprise to at least two of them; when it comes to Amanda's turn for a visit from Tante Mattie, she finds that things aren't always as you expect them to be; on the way out, Marie-Ange catches Remy, and gives him a gift. Amanda posts to say goodbye before she leaves for New Orleans, also leaving a note on Pete's door.

Dec. 3 – No Way Out: On his return from physio, Tommy is stalked to his room by Kyle, who makes his view on the former-FOHer very clear; words and some blows are exchanged and neither leaves quite satisfied. Clarice comments on the oddity of Jono having his face back. Lost In The Woods: Remy says goodbye to the mansion, with no explanation. Jennie watches Street Fighter, much to her horror. Paige tries to interest Scott in a knitted eyepatch.

Dec. 4 - Moira wakes up on Sunday morning to find that her husband has spontaneously reappeared in bed. He reassures her that everyone who went to Africa came back in one piece. They have breakfast, and finally get the chance to talk a little bit about what happened the week before. Then Rachel decides Fun With Levitation is in order. Nothing like a telekinetic baby when you're looking to break the tension. No Way Out: Tommy tries to commit suicide, but Jean happens to pass by in time to stop him, and later informs selected staff of what happened. Moira gives Domino a once-over, given that, you know, hostage of a madman for two weeks and all. Domino talks Moira out of welcoming Pete home with a broken nose. Moira pouts a little, but agrees to limit herself to frozen instruments. Haroun has a bad mobility day. Madelyn goes home to be with her sick father, leaving presents and inviting anyone who wants to visit to Edinburgh.

Dec. 5 - After Kyle gets kicked out of his tree by Wanda and grounded by Scott for what he did to Tommy, he stomps back to his suite in a huff. Then Jay confronts him about their ambiguous relationship and they come to terms with what they are as a couple. Scott calls Manuel into his office to discuss the situation with Tommy. The conversation goes downhill from there, and Scott finally admits Manuel is a lost cause. Nathan and Lorna spar, interspersed with fighting. Manuel sends Nathan and Lorna a bitter and paranoid email, accusing them of wanting to hurt him. Paige demands a garland for the stair rail. Scott emails Shiro to ask him to be Tommy's suitemate. Jubilee emails Alison and Scott asking to talk. Ororo reminds all the students that violence is not allowed.

Dec. 6 - Scott stops down to see Tommy and tell him that he can expect a new roommate. There are productive bits in the conversation, but Scott also lays down the law. Tommy's not entirely receptive; later, Scott's managed to work himself into a migraine, between Round Three with yet another problem student and too much reading. Alex decides that it's time to solicit his opinion on a matter of much importance. Haroun and Alison explore the frontiers of cybernetic science. In a seemingly uncharacteristic helpful gesture, Forge takes a laptop down to Tommy and gets him set up on the school network. And just as surprisingly, the two of them have an amazingly civil and friendly conversation. Haroun has a much better day than his previous post, a couple of days before, but by the end of the day he writes Alison a letter admitting he's drowning and asking for her help.

Dec. 7 - Haroun goes to Nathan for some perspective on his situation, and gets some advice he doesn't want to hear. A jet-lagged Nathan falls asleep on the couch and leaves the door open, upon which Rachel decides to go for a float. After Rachel's adventure, Nathan and Moira put her to bed. Her parents retire to the living room to discuss how they seemed to have managed to spawn evil incarnate. Manuel runs into Dani late at night in an effort to avoid people. This works well since Dani is also avoiding people. They talk about recent events and Manuel's moving out. Dani manages to not go crazy but only barely. Bobby initiates a mansion-wide snowball fight. Doug runs out of Tante Mattie's jambalaya, and has hot chocolate instead. Shiro moves to a new suite. Terry emails Bobby to try and fix things.

Dec. 8 - Tommy goes to find food and finds Lorna doing the same thing. They talk as Lorna prepares him something to eat before the conversation turns uncomfortable. At this rate, Tommy's going to never go in the kitchen again. After lunch, Lorna and Paige take off for Plan A (part b). But they kidnap someone along with them who is a little confused by their insanity. It's possible they ended up in Montreal. Alex is repeatedly ambushed by the smaller children, with snow, and Catseye does the same to Kyle.

Dec. 9 - In a remarkable act of civility, Catseye agrees to help Marius with a little training that does not involve random attacks (though claws continue to feature). Marius and Tommy finally cross paths, and, strangely enough, find it's something of a relief to talk to someone else still new to the whole mutant thing. After music class, Terry has a request for Alison. But first, dancing pens! Forge comes to Nathan with questions about the book of Askani technology that Nathan left for him. Some questions are answered, more are raised, and an agreement is come to. Safely returned from his harrowing abduction by Lorna and Paige, Scott gets a visit from Marius that has nothing to do with anything. Except for cider. There is a certain extent of cider involved. Catseye rewards Marius for his hard work by giving him a cat pillow. Alison reads Haroun's letter, then decides to go have some Words with the Moor.

Dec. 10 - Haroun runs into Nathan, who has Rachel in tow - or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, the conversation doesn't go too much better this time, although at least there's less yelling.

Dec. 11 - Forge is informed by his parents that he gets out of the family Christmas this year.

Dec. 12 - Nathan's been a bit busy lately, hence he's missed a couple of sessions with his friendly neighborhood therapist. Jack's a bit concerned, and probably has good reason to be. Terry and Jay meet up in the music room and argue about Tommy. He's offended, she's hurt. And then he makes her cry. Nathan announces his resignation from formal teaching. Jubilee posts just to prove she's alive. Lorna takes cooking requests. Leyu hijacks Shiro's journal to enthuse about gingerbread.

Dec. 13 - Nathan tries a new form of therapy with Haroun, involving a Danger Room-created climbing wall. It has a surprising - and rather promising - result. Alison teaches the younger kids a song about gingerbread. Kyle starts singing the Doom song, leading Jubilee to publicly wonder if he's gone mad. Lorna declares both the cold weather and food thieves - namely Alison and Alex - to be unacceptable.

Dec. 14 – Lost Generations: A chance encounter in the teacher's lounge between Nathan and Jean turns into a discussion of his Southeast Asian mystery; Jean is as disturbed about the numbers as Moira was, and offers her help, while gently introducing Nathan to the truth that annoying UN bureaucrats can be managed in ways that don't involve looming or other forms of intimidation. The subject of Askani also comes up, but only briefly. Kitty finds college finals easier than midterms, and muses on the events of Stoker and Stalkers and her reaction to them. Wanda begs for aspirin and is obliged by Rahne. Kyle begs Paige and Sam for help buying Jay a Christmas present. Dr. Amelia Voght arrives at the school to act as permanent doctor.

Dec. 15 - When Nathan and Rachel go to take a look at the fish in the pet store, Moira goes shopping by herself. Unfortunately, her luck is proving rotten enough for her to have an 'unexpected' family reunion with one of the last men she wanted to have it with - Gideon. After the verbal sparring and a warning from her, she goes to retrieve and get her family out of the mall as soon as possible. Nathan is attacked by a static-furred Catseye, along with half the mansion. Marius retaliates by launching a watergun battle. Jamie loses a pair of pyjama pants and mysteriously acquires a different pair. Haroun emails Alison to ask about their plans for the holiday. Jubilee moves out of the mansion into NYC. Forge panics on realizing he and Kyle both missed Jay's birthday and drags Kyle into planning something last-minute. Kyle then emails Jay to invite him to the choir recital.

Dec. 16 - Haroun runs into Nathan after one of his exams and finds out about the previous day's encounter with Gideon. He then gives Nate a piece of his mind about how he's handling things these days. Turnabout is fair play. Lorna wanders off to taunt Alison with cookies and finds out about something she hadn't been told about. This means Alison is in trouble.

Dec. 17 - Nate and Dom are having a perfectly fine time playing in the gym when Marius shows up to observe. Long story short, during the course of the session almost everything in the gym is, at some point, hurled. Occupants included.

Dec. 18 - Before heading out to New York for the Christmas choir, Forge and Jubilee get a few moments to talk, reminiscing on the past year and hopes for the future. Tommy and Shiro manage to have a rather long conversation for them about the pointlessness of General Education and the dread of Power Training. Shiro even shows off his mutation twice and Tommy doesn't say a thing.

Dec. 19 - After Tommy's first post to the journals, stating outright that he was FoH and refusing to apologise for it, some of his peers - ie Forge, Kyle, Marius and Jay - have mixed reactions. Arguments get heated and finally come to the exploding point. Ironically, it's the two predatory suitemates who wind up trying to play peacemaker, with less-than-successful results. Catseye is not impressed by this behaviour. X-Men Mission: Merry Christmas Magneto: Scott heads into the city for a lunch meeting - with Wanda's brother, who has some alarming news about his father's latest plans. They quickly develop a plan of their own. After Tommy's post, Terry spends some time yelling at him. When that doesn't get anywhere she runs off, directly into her boyfriend's arms. But not all is well in the state of Bobby-dom and Terry's bad day continues apace. A training session takes a startling turn when Alison, entirely unknowing, does something that finally shatters Nathan's reserve on one particularly sore subject. Jennie expresses appreciation for Bobby's efforts. Jamie asks for Moira's input into the mysterious and apparently powers-related colour-changing pyjamas. Jubilee asks Forge to help her move to New York.

Dec. 20 - Rahne and Nathan have a talk by the lake, about Rachel's flight habits and the loss of Askani. Sometime after Jay stormed out of his suite due to having the blowup with Forge, Kyle, and Marius, Jay heads for one place he figures he'll be accepted - Sam's suite. They talk about not much of anything, and Jay goes to take a nap. Bobby goes looking for Terry in the music room and finds someone else he's been wanting to talk to instead; Jay finds out he's not the only one that thinks Terry's dead wrong for standing up for Tommy. Bobby goes to visit Lorna with ice cream.

Dec. 21 - Terry consults Kylun, who is predictably understanding and offers to have a "talk" with Jay and Bobby for her. Scott follows up on his discussion with Pietro by looking for Lorna. Lorna doesn't want to have anything to do with the mission. After dinner, Alex picks up on Lorna's unease. She tells him about Scott's request and he is about as happy about it as you'd expect. Clarice expresses her appreciation for the concert Cain took the kids to and asks for volunteer models. Alison makes an official post for planning of the holiday. Nathan emails Alison to apologise and Pete to invite him and Domino to Muir Island for the holidays. Scott panics about his sudden lack of time management skills.

Dec. 22 - While hiding out in the lab from the war zone in his suite, Forge gets a surprise visit from Paige, who makes sure he gets some rest. Sleep is less than good, and a rather damning confession is made. Kurt and Nathan meet at Harry's and commiserate about being the sons of supervillains. Bobby goes to Lorna's suite for some advice and sympathy. He gets plenty of both, but still doesn't know what to do about the mess his relationship is in. Shortly after Forge emerges from the lab after the suite's less than civil discussion of Tommy, a still somewhat preoccupied Marius has an astonishingly untraumatic meeting with Miles in the kitchen, and also half a sandwich. Forge has a proposal for Scott regarding a possible prosthesis. Scott is uncertain, but willing to listen. Lorna plays her part in the action against Magneto. In Giving Of Ourselves: Terry prepares to record her first professional single. Alison is on hand as her producer. Tommy makes the perfectly innocent mistake of opening his door just as Rachel, on a mad dash for freedom, floats by. Rachel proceeds to be very cute; thankfully, Domino wanders by and retrieves the evil telepathic baby. Doug comes down to Scott's office with a bunch of stuff on his mind, and Scott manages to clear things up for him. Haroun's down in the Gym for a light workout when he comes across Domino in the middle of her own workout. They just can't seem to leave each other alone, things get hot, then the heavy weights and the heavy words drop and Haroun checks into Medical. This leads Alison to shriek at Nathan for not keeping Domino under control. Wanda starts to feel the affects of having the entire history of the Clan dropped into her head in one go. Or, well, she would if she was completely conscious. Nathan finds her in the midst of some late night writings and it takes a bit to shake her loose.

Dec. 23 - Hours after her encounter with Haroun, a distraught Domino shows up under Nathan's bedroom window. The two of them have a talk that was long overdue in a lot of ways, and good for both of them, however difficult it is. X-Men Mission: Merry Christmas Magneto: In Hawaii, Pietro waits for the arrival of Scott and the team. Toad, of course, jumps to the conclusion that they're there for his new prized gadget. Toad turns out to have protected his gadget - rather well, as a matter of fact. Sam and Cain ponder the problem. So does Lorna. Rematch time, as Toad spots Jean. But there's been a lot of water under the bridge since Liberty Island, and Toad is no match for Phoenix. Back to the forcefield. Sam and Cain indulge in a little nostalgia. It doesn't precisely work. Scott, sitting in the plane, is joined by Pietro, with the list. Pietro doesn't take Scott's concern for him very well, but that's just his way. It turns out that it's a very good thing Lorna's on-site. She's the only one who can figure out Toad's remote. Elsewhere, the last part of the plan falls into place as Alison knocks Pietro out, somewhat ostentatiously. Wanda lies in wait for Scott in his office and demands something out of him. Scott doesn't mind but Pietro might. Haroun's sitting on the back porch enjoying some tea and the view of the back yard when Nathan joins him to talk about Domino. Bobby posts from his parents' house to wish the school happy Christmas. Jamie also posts from his family's farm, and acts as go-between for his mother and Alison's talk in code.

Dec. 24 - Betsy goes back to England to spend Christmas with her family.

Dec. 25 - It's their first Christmas together in the three years they have been dating, and Alex has something very special to ask Lorna, as well as introduce her to two new additions to their family - a pair of puppies named Crush and Lili. When bringing Cain his present, Alison and Miles discover that the perennially cranky groundskeeper has some very unexpected guests. Nathan posts from Muir to wish the mansion a happy Christmas, together with a picture of Rachel and her new toy. Doug wishes the mansion happy Christmas in seven different languages, upon which Dani, Terry, Alex and Angelo contribute their own. Terry gives her father a CD of her singing for Christmas.

Dec. 26 - As it turns out, displacing angst with relentless exercise was not the best of ideas for Marius. Happily, sensible people are present, in the form of Catseye and Terry, and no harm is done. Or at least, none more severe than a few mildly sprained brains. Moira and Nathan have a very important request for Bridge. The impression that Rachel gives is that she's very much in agreement with her parents on the matter. Bridge is startled, and informs his friends that they're crazy, but agrees that yes, he will be Rachel's godfather.

Dec. 27 - In a quiet moment, over some eggnog, Phillip decides that his grandson has moped quite sufficiently on a certain subject, and tells Scott the story of Wiley Post, aviation pioneer. It's a very pointed story with a great deal of relevance to Scott's situation. Bobby discovers something about his brother that he doesn't know how to deal with, so he runs away, instead. He arrives back at the mansion and wakes his suitemate coming in. He doesn't talk about what happened, but at least he's not sleeping alone - because Angelo's dog decides she's sleeping on Bobby's bed tonight. Doug decides the mansion at large needs to know about the patterns in the number of stairs. Lorna posts about her new puppy and taunts the mansion with the other news she refuses to tell them.

Dec. 28 - Terry has breakfast with Tommy, then gives him a guitar lesson. Bobby doesn't take the sight of them together well, after last night's revelation, and there is some yelling and punching of things, and the gym gets a makeover, for which Bobby later publicly apologises. Forge makes Kyle a snowboard and he decides to see if the roof provides enough gradient to use it.

Dec. 29 - After an evening spent at Billie's pub, Nathan and Bridge go for a walk on the beach at Muir. There's some laughter, some taking stock of the past year, and even some falling in the North Sea. Sam goes out to ask Kyle to kindly stop snowboarding off the roof. In the process, they have a discussion about Kyle's relationship with Jay. Haroun emails Alison and Terry to ask for help testing his new equipment.

Dec. 30 - Bobby comments on the eerily quiet mansion and asks about New Year's Eve plans.

Dec. 31 - New Year’s Eve.

Plots

Skeleton Coast

No Way Out

Lost In The Woods

Lost Generations

In Giving Of Ourselves

X-Men Mission: Merry Christmas Magneto

External Links

December 2005