Hey guys! Guess who again?

I'm back! I came by earlier today and everyone was gone. Musa told me you were all on a trip. How did it go?

Musa also told me we need to be heading out for pizza. Name the time and the place and I'll be there.

[Private to Ophir]
Your parents still believe all that romantic crap, right? No questions, right? My parents tried to question me about you but I was able to bs it.

So, I left you guys wondering how I dealt with my parents, right?

Okay, so here goes.

They were becoming increasingly insistent and I wasn't sure what to do, but then Ophir, of all people, had a great idea. He thought that we should elope. Not real eloping, of course, but pretending to run away and get married would give us a reason to make a run for it and not have our motives questioned, and both of our parents would be happy.

It was the perfect plan. I wrote an angry, prissy letter (gagging the whole time) about how I didn't want my pure love for Ophir to be ruined by a huge, formal wedding, and that I wanted our love to be something special and private- and completely alone. I said that we were running away together, and that we would return someday soon, but we wanted some time alone together as a couple.

The plus side of being from an old fashioned realm is that your parents believe you when you throw romantic bullshit at them. They ate it all up. It's kind of sad; I mean, I love my parents in the way everyone loves their parents, but they just don't get me at all. But with that deed done, I was free to roam Tides and seek out Anne, and Ophir was freed from his courtly duties to pursue further training in martial arts and magic. We kept in contact with each other during the two months we were separated in order to keep a continuity going between our parents, because we've kept up the eloping act. Our parents think that we've visited Solaria, Calyopso, and Equinoctia, and they think that we're going to Pozioni (OOC note: Shilly's realm) next. Good times.

I'm not looking forward to going back and revealing the deception, but I don't really have a choice here. I was between a rock and a hard place, and I had to choose either actually getting married, or deceiving my parents in order to achieve my goal.

So I'm sure that all of you noticed how I left Alfea so quickly with the excuse of an urgent mission, right? I'm sure that many of you were wondering about why I was in such a hurry and what could have possibly been more important than honing my Winx and figuring out how I wanted to use my powers for the better of my kingdom.

Well, I have been doing that, in a way. Outside of the Winx girls, I'm not sure how many of you are aware of the fact that my realm is very traditional and closed off to the rest of the world. We have mermaids and guardians and paladins galore, but they keep to themselves just as much as my people stay isolated. For seemingly no reason at all, my family has for generations perpetuated the archaic tradition of marriage as soon as Enchantix is attained, or if the royal daughter is not a fairy, then once she comes of age.

There is no precedent for whether the royal daughter is a witch, for it has never happened. I believe it would be highly ironic if I ended up having a witch for a daughter...but who knows if I'll get married at all? I'm not sure whether I want to or not anyway. Of course, there's Nabu. But I like to call him Ophir- and for the most part, he's okay with that. He did introduce himself to me that way. I'm not so good with the little changes myself, as much as I want to change the bigger picture. But my relationship with him is another story. What I will tell you all for now is that for the moment, we're just friends, and he understands that I need some time to myself and for myself.

Anyway, before I left, I was fuming about this stupid tradition that was boxing me into leading my life in a way that I just wasn't ready to, when Livy came to me with a very old looking photo album. Inside it were pictures of Anne, my first friend- in fact, she was my only friend, until I came to Alfea. (The pixies aside)

I didn't understand why I had received the book. And, as there was no inscription, I didn't know who had sent it. But I knew it was from Tides. And, for some reason, I knew that she was there again- I could feel it. Because even though we hadn't seen each other in over ten years, I firmly believe that Anne and I had a connection that couldn't be broken through time or distance.

So I immediately left for Tides, because I believed that the photo album was a sign that she was trying to reach me. When I got there, however, I was immediately confronted by my parents, who were very angry that I had not responded to their letters. They were furious that I refused to marry Ophir, and they didn't want to listen to anything I had to say. But my parents didn't understand. They still, they still thought that I was that little girl who listened to everything they said (even though I never had- how do you all think I learned to dance?), and just did not comprehend that I had my own dreams and visions for how Tides should be in the future. So they tried to guilt trip me into accepting Ophir's (actually, his parents') proposal.

But my parents didn't know what was up my sleeve.

I've gotta go for now, but I will continue this tomorrow! I hope to see you all when I return to Alfea, hopefully in the near future.

What's up, guys? You will not believe what I have been discovering in these past few months. I am so glad that I took the chance to dive back into the past; it has been a fulfilling journey so far, and I truly hope that my efforts will bring Tides into the modern day.

But other than the busy work, it's been so exciting! You'll never believe it, but I found Anne! She's opened her own dance studio and it's incredibly successful.

I've gotta go for now, though I promise to tell you all everything as soon as I get the chance.

Life has been way too crazy these past few weeks, and I'm totally sick of it. I need to chill out--I need to dance! I just realized how much of my time I've been giving lately to people I barely know and, honestly, don't care about all that much. One of whom has hurt my friend and who I still owe a knuckle sandwich. He better not think his little ass is safe just because he's not human right now, because I have a bone to pick with him.


But anyway. I think I'm going to go to Shilly's party on Monday. I don't know that many witches, and that's not a good thing. How are we going to foster understanding between the different branches of magic if we don't even get along?

What better way to do it than through some dancing and some awesome pulsating beats? I can't think of anything I'd rather do myself. Bloom, you in? I know a lot of people on our floor are leaving and I don't know what the rest of the Winx are up to, so I figured I'd ask you first, since you usually leave after everyone else.

(Entry locked so only those who know of Sky's problem can see it.)

Bloom and I have been spending considerable time in Alfea's library, looking up stuff on werewolves. We've found quite a few things, including a list of failed cures, but we're also getting a lot of overlap with Beta's library. Bloom and Chimera have been emailing each other what we've found and a lot really is the same.

One interesting tidbit I turned up is that there was once a significant werewolf community in the Wildland. Wildland is a little beyond Magix. The big shopping city of Adquistes is nearby, but Wildland is kind of like a jungle. If it's still there, or even if it's not, I think we might need to take a field trip there.

That should make Brandon happy. Bloom finally realized the other day that he couldn't read when she first started at Alfea and Stella was teaching him how. Bloom assumed Stella had thoroughly taught him, but Stella being Stella, we now think she elaborated on how much progress Brandon made. So while we thought he could read, he probably can't as well as Stella made it sound. Bloom feels kind of bad, but she's shrugging it off and putting her mind on this research. I think we're almost done though. There's just one more stack of books to tackle and we're doing that tonight.

Makes me kind of glad. I like figuring things out, but I also love action.

OOC: I'm keeping my characters out of mass interaction, as I'm just too tired to do it justice. But I'm off after 11 AM tomorrow, so perhaps then.

Well, journal, things have died down here a little bit. Flora's back, which is awesome. She seems a bit worse for the wear, but hopefully some quality friend time will have her back to normal soon. Tecna's doing great. She's her usual self. And Bloom's bounced back from her bad breakup with surprising ease. She's out with W right now at a movie I wasn't interested in seeing. Or rather, one I pretended I wasn't interested in seeing. *whistles innocently* And I'm sure I'll get a beatdown once she reads this. But it's for your own good, girl! Two fiery-tempered redheads. Come on! Match made in heaven.

But it's Musa I'm worried about. She's hardly ever happy anymore. I don't know what happened to the bouncy, giggly friend I had. I remember when we went dancing at that Earth club. Now that was a good time. But lately she's either real solitary or angsting over something. It's not nice to say this about a friend, but I don't like being around her when she's constantly upset. We're not a bunch of emo kids. We Winx should want to be happy! Leave the dreary for the witches, please. Boys aren't the only thing in this world. I wish she'd realize that and try to be happy even though precious Riven is gone. The old Musa would be. She'd grab life by the horns, not stagger along behind the bull's ass, waiting to be kicked again. I dunno. Maybe I agree with Jared. Riven's not good enough for her if she's always upset with him or about him or whatever. Shouldn't a boyfriend make you happy? I know I wouldn't keep one around if all he did was cause me pain. I'm sure they've had some good times, but lately...

Eh. Whatever. It's not my life. But I don't know how much more emo I can take.

Things have been weird here. We had that one night of fun together, but honestly, it seems like the Winx are growing apart. It's more and more frequent that everyone is off doing their own stuff. And all these changes! I think Flora and Helia are either broken up or will be soon. Bloom's been dumped by that ass, Sky. (My fists are still itchy to hit his stupid face.) Old enemies are new friends. Diaspro and Chimera both seem to have turned over a new leaf. Or perhaps their true selves are finally coming out.

Is this normal for friendships? That they stray sometimes? I'm...not used to having friends, so I don't know. Should I go out and try to meet new people on my own? I like to dance. Maybe I can find others that share that interest?

I almost want some big disaster to happen so we're all forced to work together again.

I'm not usually one to do what everyone is doing, but in this case, it's fun.