Holy crap!

Dear Journal:

So, there's been a lot of hubbub lately about these weird, rumored "maws" that have appeared. Needless to say, we've had our own trouble regarding the maws. That little prick Diabolos keeps appearing and whining to us that if the "Mawed One" isn't destroyed, the world will be in jeopardy, blah blah blah blah terrorcakes. Even if Diabolos didn't have a long-ass record of trying to kill us (in increasingly creative and obnoxious ways), I wouldn't just want to take HIS word for it before launching myself into yet another battle-to-the-death with a god. All this Deicide stuff really makes one thirsty, and I'm fresh out of my Rolanberry vintages after the last time we whupped Diabolos's scary demonic ass.

Anywho, I decided to go check it out the other day before Mai gets it into her pretty little head that she needs to get involved. (500 gilz says that she did anyway though. She has a nose for adventure, that one. It's enough to make a guy have fits, if she weren't so derned cute.) So I hopped on a chicken and ran out to Batallia Downs, and found the nearest Maw up by the northern ridge. Let me tell you, the stink on that thing was amazing. Ly bad. It was like a gigantic mouth, with small, jutting teeth, pointed up at the heavens as if it wanted to devour the sky. There were a few gawking civilians and adventurers standing about. I urged the chocobo forward, close enough to feel the thing's hot, stinking breath on my face. It was certainly alive.

I hopped down from the bird and peered into the thing's mouth. It seemed to react to my presence, and I felt for a moment overwhelmingly dizzy. The voices in my head went nuts, but it was like they were going in and out of focus, going loud then suddenly dropping to a faint buzz. I had the impression of a vast world-between-worlds, and a whiskered, feminine face--then bam! I was on my ass in Batallia Downs again, and there was a war on. It was twenty years ago.

Kind of awesome, huh? The weirdest thing was my connection to Bahamut was... skewed. I could still feel my Lord and Master's presence in my head, but it was like there were two of him--a weak voice of the one from the present, and a much louder, pissed-off one from the one in the past that hadn't met me yet. I had to do some fast talking to convince him that I was his future self's Prophet, and then he seemed intrigued but still a bit suspicious. At least he didn't kill me though. That would've been hard to explain--dead in the past, but also a six-year-old kid back then. Weird. The opportunities for fucking up time are endless.

Anyway, turns out you can hop between times using these Maws, so I'm going to be doing some tests and seeing just how much this can be manipulated. Wish me luck!

XXXOOO,

Alberic