[James looks into the video and he looks about a year older than he did last time you saw him.]

Oh wow. This place really is back. And with cake too.

[He grins.] This just makes it easier to tell everyone what came in my letter from Hogwarts!

[He holds up a small badge with the letters HB on it.] I have no idea how but Dumbledore made me Head Boy. I wonder who my Head Girl is?

[Our feed today cuts in on the new apartment Rei's settled into - after everything that happened with Kourga and Barago, Rei's relocated to his proper place in the city for the time being and with a new apartment to make up for it.


Anyway, the feed's recording from the kitchen table as a figure in silver armor (Rei in his attire as ZERO, for those of you new to this) comes in through the window. He does a double-take for a moment before shutting the laptop to cut the feed -


And a few minutes later, it comes back on again, Rei now in his normal outfit and with a plate. He's already digging into the cake, but his expression's between amusement and annoyance.]



The cake is a nice bonus, but I think we can do without the glitter.

Did anybody else wake up with a cake in their room? It's certainly one way to start your day. The party hat was a nice touch too.

I could do without the glitter being between the pages of every book I own though. My room is covered in the stuff now.

At least it didn't pour out of my exam somehow. I don't think the weird guy behind me would've ever stopped staring if that happened. Speaking of which...

Have you ever looked behind you and ended up making eye contact with someone? It's pretty awkward. For some reason you think it might be rude to look away first so you end up holding it and it just gets really silly.

There's glitter in all of the tea cups... Even in the tea pot...

Naru's not going to be happy about this.

...

Maybe I can distract him with the cake.

I have to say it was rather nice of the community to give us cakes. Though it didn't need to put so much glitter all over my room and fur. It's going to take forever to get it all out.

So what flavor cake was yours? Mine was mint.

[You see the inside of Rose apartment in Ulara. There is confetti and glitter everywhere. Rose is there trying to restrain a certain little black dragon from getting to what appears to be a duck shaped cake on a desk. Obviously she doesn't release she is being recorded.]

Would you calm down, you silly little creature? You are not going to eat the whole thing at once!

[Amy's sitting at a table with her duck cake in front of her, a party hat on her head and silver glitter clinging to her hair.]

Hello there, everybody! So I see we all have cake today. Has anyone actually tried it yet? It looks good, but I don't want to sprout feathers or get webbing in between my toes. You can never tell with this place.

So is it safe to eat? Because I haven't had breakfast yet.

The Kingdom of Camelot is honoured to personally invite your champion knight to participate in a tournament

to a tournment which will be held on the week of the Harvest Moon

What the - where's the writing gone?

Ducks? What this all about ducks?

Look I don't know what's going on, but I've got a kingdom to help run, so stop it!

....

Why ducks?

So. I take it there's something about a cake today?

[Remember this guy? Flynn's obviously still on the Grid, where everything glows and there doesn't seem to be a sun. He's looking into the camera, something of a dubious expression on his face.]

I didn't think I was ever going to see this place in my hosts file again.

[He pauses, half-smiles.]

The confetti tapers off over the course of about a month, incidentally.

[There's a big time differential between the Grid and the real world. Flynn's already dealt with finding glitter everywhere for weeks.]

OOC: In light of all of his canonmates dropping (sob), I'm rewinding Flynn a bit. If you have CR with him--all three of you--details are here.

[ lockon's wearing the party hat at a rakish angle. it's certainly not covering any sort of singed hair that you can see flicking out from underneath it, which is certainly not from rolling over pretty much on top of a cake with a lit candle on it. nobody say a word. ]

Does anyone actually know what it is we're apparently celebrating today? Not that I don't appreciate the whole party atmosphere, but if we're going to be singing Happy Birthday before the day is out then I'm going to need some advance warning. For the record, whoever planned this - A for effort, but you lose points for the health and safety violation. I hope for your sakes your cakes weren't as precarious a position as mine, guys.

Oh, and if anyone has any tips on clearing confetti out of computer wiring, I'm all ears. I've no idea how it even got into Haro's ear-ports, let alone how it keeps doing it, but I'm sure it being in there isn't a good thing.

[The screen shows the interior of a hotel room, one that might be familiar to the community as the room Edward Elric's been holed up in. There are books everywhere, and glitter, and streamers still dangling from the slow-moving ceiling fan.

Winry sits on the bed, a party hat dangling from her fingers by its string. She looks like she was shot with a glitter bomb, with it sticking to her skin.

Edward comes into view, his expression horrified.]

It's not our fault! [He sputters.]

[Another person comes into view - the hotel manager, if his outfit is anything to judge by.]

Mr. Elric. [He glares.] My staff heard a ruckus, and when they came to clean the room today, they found this! [He points a trembling finger at the confetti, the glitter, the streamers, and the duck cake.] My staff will not be cleaning this up!

[The feed abruptly cuts out as Winry realizes they're being filmed.]

Free food? Don't mind if I do--I think that cake needed some more sugar or something... Kind of bland. (Roze...I'm sorry about all the confetti. Really!)

Also, I just realized something today. Tomorrow means that I've been here for a year and I'm still kicking. Kind of amazing, right? I thought so! So, I guess I got a question. What are you guys planning on doing your next year here? I'm not sure myself, heh.

[The video feed starts with the view of an office, no person in sight. But you can still hear Duo's voice, together with rummaging noises. He sounds a bit annoyed.]

Do ya have any idea of the fuckin' pain in the ass that was gettin' all that confetti an' glitter off my hair? It won't be difficult to find the hair balls blockin' the pipes this time, I bet they can freakin' glow in the dark.

[He suddenly pops out of the screen when he sits up - he had been going through the drawers on his desk. He has a fork in one hand and a tupper with the cake in the other one. You may also notice he's a little more formal today, wearing his Preventer uniform.] At least I got compensation - free food always gets me in better mood.

[His eyes leave the screen to look at something on the other side of the office, and he grins that dangerous grin of his. He puts a finger against his lips, asking the community for silence, and then turns the laptop around to film a guy with the same uniform going through some files. Once again, you can hear Duo's voice, more cheerful this time.]

Hey, Blokhin! Think fast! [You see something fly from Duo's direction - the party hat. The guy catches the hat and when he turns it upside down to see what the hell it was about, confetti is thrown at his face. The agent is not amused - but that doesn't stop Duo from laughing his ass off.

He turns the laptop around again to its original position and you can see Duo already attacking the cake.] Merry Duck-mas!

The cake was lovely, but I'll have to take someone else's word on the taste. I didn't get a piece before it was... inhaled.

Still, it was a kind gesture, whomever sent it.

The cake was awesome! Now I need to learn how to do a rainbow cake, too.

First the weird cake and the second I look on the computer I stole, there's some sort of community? Whoever named it is probably an idiot, but you guys seem nice enough!

[ There's a girl sitting at a desk in a dormitory looking room with a bunk bed in the background, but there are only enough things in the room for one person. She leans back in her chair, lifting her feet and putting them up on the desk next to the laptop and setting a plate with a piece of the cake on her lap, but points at the screen with two chopsticks. ]

From the looks of some of these posts, you guys have too much personality to be some kind of NPC network. There's no way you guys are from this world or I would've noticed you around already. Identify yourselves so we can get the annoying introductions out of the way. I'm Yuri Nakamura. You can probably just go with Yuri though, considering--

[ There's a knock and the door and Yuri looks back. A quiet girl's voice comes from behind the door. "Nakamura-san, can you just open the door? I don't have anywhere to sleep tonight.." Yuri turns around, dropping her feet to the ground again, and yells through the door. ]

Find somewhere else to stay, you've had all day! I'm not staying in the same room as one of you fake people! I gave you your things and I already flushed your key, so get out of here!

[ She turns back to the computer, both eyes closed as she sighs, then opens one eye to peek at the screen. ]

Where was I? Oh! Just call me Yuri. Then, it's your turns!

[Sure it's only been a few days for you, but Lily's book went and vanished for a year. But when she woke up, it was sitting on her bedside table, sitting next to a small duck-shaped cake.]

I must say, it was a surprise to find the community returned to my journal, much more so to find a rather tasty cake sitting beside it. I don't suppose it's common for the community to leave you for a year, then welcome you back with a cake, is it?

At any rate, I got my Hogwarts letter a couple weeks back, for my seventh and final year. I've been made Head Girl. Even with such good news, it's strange how fast time goes by when you look back on it all.

((Tags tomorrow when I get home from work.))