So, you've probably been wondering where I was.

[Kefka is dangling, pinned, between three statues: one angelic diva, one devilish knight, one demonic dancer. His shirt and pants are stained dark red from a nasty-looking stab wound in his stomach. And the ground they're all on is slowly crumbling away to reveal...sky. Uh oh.]

It has been a really long few weeks so let me say to just go look it up. It's on wikipedia by now, I bet. [He sighs, then starts ticking events off on his bloody fingers.] Let's just say that I destroyed the Returners on the orders of the Empire, stole the powers of the espers thus killing them all, set a town on fire, raised a floating continent, got backstabbed by the two remaining people of the Empire [and he raises a bloody hand from his wound] one literally, killed the other one, the first one got away with her friends, destroyed the Empire, and now I'm dying. Ha! It's...not nearly so bad as everyone says. I feel more woozy than anything else, hee hee hee...and so messy....

So, community....don't worry. I'll be back. Either I will have my world restarted, a New Game, or....hee, I'll be back better than ever. A god. It'll be great. So Scrooge, Samara, Dru, Aria, Mr. E, Jezebel, you other person, don't worry...but, Ozaki....

[Behind him, floating, a huge creature rises. It booms:]

Not so fast, ya fuckin' clown! Yer not gonna hurt Terra again!

[Kefka turns as well as he can, disbelief written all over his face.] How did you even get here? That doesn't even make sense!

Don't matter!

[The creature opens it's mouth and blasts him, the statues, and the ground. When the energy dissipates, nothing is left--]

[Wait, no, there's a...thing...the camera must have been caught in the blast, since the film is starting to blur. Whatever it is has great flapping wings in white and black and it's fast, spinning around the creature and chipping off parts with bright bursts of energy.]

[And the winged thing glows, glows, glows brighter and brighter and starts burning away the other creature, the sky, and the camera starts to crackle, fizz, until it breaks with a crash, leaving one image in its wake:]

( not icly cut; the world burns )

[ooc: canon move! Kefka's become a god, the world has been transformed, and Jecht-the-space-whale's attack didn't stop anything, unfortunately. Which punted Jecht back to the beginning of his canon. Kefka's going to be MIA for the next few weeks since his book broke. No replies.]

[...and "mr. e" is supposed to be Envy, since Kefka's trying to help him without Greed knowing. :9 'The other person' is Grace. Italics are Jecht-Sin, normal is Kefka.]

[Canon move time! It doesn't seem as though much time has passed for Aria though she is now at least in her room and not in Spencer's house]

Hey. Sorry I've been pretty quiet recently...things have been pretty intense here lately. I don't know if I mentioned it before but there's been a lot of stuff about Ali that's been coming out...coming to us, anyway. Like, we know now that Ian was with Ali the night she died...have I mentioned him before? He's Spencer's brother-in-law. I'm still not sure why Melissa decided to rush into marrying him...anyway, that's not what's important. What's important is, someone sent us that video. And we were going to turn it in, but then Spencer's laptop went missing and by the time she found it again it was gone. Only then we had this picture sent to us of Ali the night she died. And there's this shadow, but none of us can figure out who it's of.

Anyway, Spencer said she's going to ask Ali's brother about it. In the meantime, she's managed to get tickets for this gallery opening in Philadelphia, which means me and Ezra finally get to go on a proper date without having to worry about being seen together because no-one will know us. I'm so excited! I just hope everything goes smoothly...

[And the video cuts off as Aria gets distracted and heads towards her wardrobe]

A couple of years ago, I was with Ali and the other girls when she decided to throw a stinkbomb into Toby's garage. She told us he'd been watching us while we were trying on clothes and stuff, and that we should do something to make him pay.

Only...something went wrong. I don't know what, exactly, but there was an explosion and Toby's step-sister Jenna was blinded. If I've ever mentioned the Jenna thing, that's what I mean.

We didn't tell anyone, either. Ali said she'd take care of it and we were too scared of what would happen if we said anything to the police. Or, well, Ali made us too scared to say anything. It became a secret, something that would keep us connected.

Ali made us scared of a lot of things, come to think about it.

Anyway I don't know why I'm even typing any of this much less sending it but it feels like I don't really have a choice. So, um, yeah.

[Aria looks almost normal when she first comes into the frame. She's dressed for a dance, but is mostly otherwise composed. Until she starts speaking in the sort of tone where she's too drunk to determine whether she's happy, sad or somewhere in-between.]

So. Guess who doesn't remember this place existing. At all. Just when I was getting my head around him being here, I mention it to him and I might as well have told him I was an alien or something.

Still, I should have expected it. Between all the other crap going down right now, figures we would lose the one kinda safe space we had. Somewhere I wouldn't have to leave his apartment five minutes before him just so we don't wind up looking suspicious.

[She frowns a little as her sitting position falters slightly]

Did someone spike the punch bowl? I do not remember drinking tonight...I hope Em's okay. Maybe I should go check on her...

[And the feed cuts out. Yes, Aria's been hit by the drunk virus]

[Aria's in her room, mindlessly fidgetting with the Disneyland map in her hand as she sets the webcamera to go with the other]

So, um. It's good to see the community can be nice to us sometimes. It was fun being able to hang out with some of you in such a fun place. And after it making us all think we were going to die, it was a refreshing change of pace. For those who have been here longer than I have...do the nice ones happen often?

( Private to Kefka )

[Hi, Community, have Winry, looking a bit cranky. In the background, the viewer can see Edward Elric, pacing back and forth, as well as hear him arguing about something. Probably at Winry, who's ignoring him to make her post.]

[Winry tries a bright smile. It may or may not come off as cranky, too.]

Hi, guys!

The Rezembool Sheep Shearing Festival is tomorrow. I know some of you wanted to come to it. Mr. Scott, I sent you a message from a safe place to world hop to. Aria, Harry, if you want to come, please do! Mr. Scott might be able to bring you, and if he can't, I'll ask if someone else can.

[She pauses as Ed yells, 'Hell no!' at something/one in the background. Winry rolls her eyes.]

What I'm trying to find out is if anyone knows of a good disguise for Ed? He ought to go to the Festival, since it's the first time he's been in Rezembool for one since he was little.

[There is a screech at the 'L' word in the background. Winry turns, yelling over her shoulder, 'You, bean!' before turning back to the camera. She smiles sweetly, as if this is a common occurrence.]

So, if anyone has any good ideas to disguise Ed, or would like to disguise him for me, that'd be great! Thanks!

[The camera opens on an Aria who has by the looks of things not long woken up - she's still in bed, still in her vest-top and pyjama bottoms combination, though she's sat up, and seems both confused and transfixed by her wrist. One particular person will be able to see the red string tied around said wrist. After a moment or two she gets up and walks over to her bedroom door. She leaves the room and thus camera shot, though she can still be heard]

Mike! Do you know anything about this?

[The response is indistinguishable]

Never mind.

[She wanders back into her bedroom and back into shot, still staring at her wrist and looking even more confused. Just before the feed drops, she can be seen apparently fidgeting with and tugging at air (unless you're the previous particular person, in which case you will see her fidgeting with and tugging at the string)]

(ETA since I should have said before: responses are a little while later, with Aria dressed and looking less like she's just got up)

[It's a tired and somewhat worried-looking Aria who addresses the community today.]

So, um. A lot has happened in the last 24 hours. And, there's a lot going on in my head that I can't even begin to make sense of. So I thought that maybe I'd post here and see other people's takes on things.

First of all, for anyone who saw my journal post last night, Hanna's going to be fine. Her leg's pretty busted up and she's in a lot of pain but at least we still have her. Winry, Mr Scott, thank you both for your kind words - they really meant a lot.

But this is where it starts getting complicated. ( OOC cut for length )

[Next part of the canon move, following on from this. Final part will go up tomorrow]

[Have an Aria. Same pink streak, same general decor in her room, but none of the enthusiasm of two nights prior. Indeed, initially she doesn't seem to have even noticed that she's being recorded; when she does she ventures the tiniest of smiles that doesn't distract from how worried and upset she looks.]

Sorry, community. Now's really not a good time.

[She looks away, resting her head on her arms as she lies on her bed. A minute or so passes with Aria remaining mostly silent and motionless; when she looks up to see that she's still being filmed she heaves a sigh and sits up, facing the camera fully now.]

Okay, fine. You want an update? Ali's missing. She wasn't there when I woke up, and then Spencer came and said she wasn't anywhere...I don't know, I'm sorta hoping this is just Ali messing with us and she'll show up soon laughing at us for freaking out, but it's been hours now and we've heard nothing, and her mom phoned earlier to ask where she was so she hasn't gone back there...

[She swallows, trying to maintain composure]

I'm scared something's happened. And if that weren't bad enough, I overheard my parents talking about schools in Iceland earlier. Obviously I can't ask them, they don't know I heard them, but why would they even be interested in what schools there are in Iceland?

[Another sigh as she glances down at her phone]

I'm sorry, community. I know this has been a mess of an entry. But it's the best I can do right now.

[The feed opens with an Aria who looks much the same, albeit slightly younger and with pink streaks in her hair. As she speaks, she seems unable to remain still.]

So, okay, Mom told me to go find something to do since I'm driving her mad. And I've tried texting the others but I think they must all be busy too. Which is fine, I mean, I'm seeing them all tomorrow.

That's why I'm so excited, really. We're all going to sleep over at the old warehouse, once Ali gets back from her grandma's. And I know, I know, I've been hanging out with the others most of the summer but it hasn't quite been the same. Although...

[Her expression falters slightly here and she stops moving. She looks about to finish that thought, but shakes her head just slightly and presses on]

Anyway. You know that thing where you haven't seen one of your best friends for what seems like forever, and you know you're going to see them again soon but it's still not quite soon enough? Yeah, that's me right now. Hence my coming here to try and distract myself.

So...what's everyone been up to lately?

[ooc: Aria's skipped back about a year or so, but has already gone through the discovery of the comm. Anyone else who's done the same feel free to have already spoken to her]

[Have a video of Winry working at her drafting easel. She's frowning at the papers, flipping the page up and looking at what's underneath, pulling what's been flipped over back to look at it closely before returning to the page she's working on. She turns from the easel to study a notebook on the worktable, setting down her charcoal stick to pick up a pencil and make some notes there while glancing over her shoulder then back again.

She notices the recording light on her communication device and pauses, rubbing the back of her hand across her forehead and leaving a smear of charcoal on it.]

Ah! I didn't know you were there. [At least she wasn't in the bath this time.]

I'm getting ready for Mr. Stark's expo. I should be able to have a couple of new automail designs I can display, at least, but it'll mean I'll be pulling all nighters to get them done in time.

[Somehow, this doesn't seem to bother her in the least.]

Oh! Thank you for everyone who was worried the other day. I'm feeling a lot better.

[Almost an aside.] And now Ed's getting better, too, since he caught the stomach virus from me.

[Locked to Alphonse]

Al, I'm not pregnant. And yes, Ed does know.

[/locked]

[Locked to Mr. Palazzo]

Thank you for the Remedy, sir! It really worked well!

[/locked]

[Locked to Kurt]

Kurt, the test showed I'm not pregnant. Thank you again for getting it for me! It's amazing, the technology your world has!

[/locked]

[Locked to Captain Sparrow & Tommy Gavin]

I'm not pregnant. Thank you for everything!

[/locked]

[Locked to Mr. Crocker]

Mr. Crocker, thank you again for offering to come and stay with me when I was sick the other day.

[/locked]

[Post starts as Aria settles in front of the webcam, casting furtive glances around to make sure no-one’s about to walk in on her. When she begins to speak she leans in close to the camera, voice hushed and hurried as she tries to film her blog post as quickly as possible]

So, okay. I probably shouldn’t be doing this when we still have no idea who A is, but if I don’t let this out somewhere, I might actually explode. And, well, this place should be safe enough since I’ve never heard of anyone at school using it and if anyone I knew did use it then I’d have heard of it before now, right? Right. Besides, this place is covered with ducks, how bad can it be?

[She pauses, biting her lip as she tries to decide how best to continue]

So, um…hi. My name’s Aria and I found this place when I was looking for some sort of blog or social network site that my friends won’t be able to find. I’ve noticed a lot of people seem to post here with questions and, well…right now I have a question that’s better asked to strangers than to any of my friends…or anyone who might know my friends. Or my parents. Or, okay, anyone in Rosewood. So, here goes.

[She takes a deep breath, her pace of speech picking up as her question goes on]

What would you do if a guy you liked disappeared on you, so then you started to like someone else but just when things might start happening with the second guy, the first guy who you shouldn’t really like in the first place comes back and tells you he can’t stop thinking about you? [Brief pause] I mean, this is all purely hypothetical, but I can’t ask my friends or they’ll think I actually like someone and Hanna knows I like Noel so she’ll want to know who the other guy is and-[She stops abruptly. Her expression and voice both betray that this is not a hypothetical situation]

You know what, I should probably stop this here. So, um, thank you in advance to anyone who replies and if there’s anything I can offer my thoughts on in return just let me know. Bye!

[She offers a slightly strained smile and waves before the camera cuts out]