The Wild Magic Party: Intro

Ann, Hannah and Beth had been called into the office of the Cafe in the Park, where their boss told them that they would be catering an evening event in a few weeks time. "It's on November the sixth, I hope you're all free."

They all quickly agreed that they were free; Hannah had to consult the diary app in her phone to know she did not have a job on with Gabriel and Annika; Ann and Beth knew straight away they were available, because their social lives were less complicated.

"It seems that this is a high-end function and they are looking for three people to wait on the guests. The thing that puzzles me is that they're offering five times the usual rate and say that they'll supply the uniforms. The most puzzling thing is that they requested Hannah and Ann by name and asked that I chose a third that gets on with you two."

The group readily agreed that five times the hourly rate for a seven hour shift at a party at a time of year when the cafe was less busy, would be welcome and give them a chance to have some extra money towards the looming festive season. They also expected that the guests might be heavy tippers too.

It was Ann who asked for more details; who the people organising the event were and how they knew hers and Hannah's names.

Heather said, "I don't know exactly who these people are, but they are hiring the conference rooms and hall at the Five Maples Hotel, and the Five Maples wouldn't let just anybody rent the place. They also sent messages to you two. The one for Hannah says, 'you were suggested by Gabriel.' and the one for Ann says, 'Terry says, please come; I'll make sure you don't regret it.'"

Hannah was the first to react. "Well, I know who Gabriel is. He's my other boss. I guess he thought that if he wasn't going to need me for something that week, he would recommend me for something well paid to make sure that I didn't have too much of a shortfall."

Ann was less happy about this revelation, because the only Terry she knew was the magician who had taken her for a stroll on the lake, she also knew that Hannah's Gabriel was a magician. She put two and two together and concluded that this event would have magicians, which with some of her experiences with magicians, meant it was something she found to be an unwelcome prospect.

Both Hannah and Beth quickly agreed that they would do it. Ann on the other hand said that she would like a day or so to think about it. She was worried about the prospect of waitressing at a magicians' event, especially given the uncomfortable and embarrassing experiences she had had from getting, even peripherally, involved with magicians, but the prospect of the extra money and the promise from Terry (the only magician she felt she could trust), that she would not regret it counted for something (even if their only encounter had included her being tied up and then half-drowned).

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That evening Ann was having trouble concentrating on the series she was trying to catchup on, because she still had not decided if she was going to accept the job. This viewing was interrupted twice. The first was a text from Freddy saying 'I hear your catering the party on the 6th, look forward to seeing you there.' This confirmed to Ann that the event was magician related; it had not missed her attention that Freddy was now an apprentice magician, under the wing of his uncle, known on stage as Arthur the Archmage, who she had encountered before (she considered that while he had been gentle with her, switching her body for that of a lad she had only met briefly that evening was at least discourteous, especially as she had had to sit though the second half of the show with a stranger's body).

The second interruption was when a delivery van arrived with a huge bouquet of flowers. The flowers came with a note saying, 'I hope we'll see you on the 6th, I'll make sure you experience no pain or embarrassment, Terry.'

The following day she let her boss know that she would accept the assignment. She thought to herself, 'what's the worst that could happen?', then cursed the thought, because it usually led to things spiralling out of control in unanticipated ways, producing a situation compared to which what you thought was the worst would have been preferable.

For the next few days she worried that she would become an object of ridicule at the event or made to do an illusion that would either be painful or lead to socially awkward situations, but then another bill arrived and she realised how useful the extra money would be, as it would pay better than new year's eve.

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As the three waitresses arrived at the hotel, they were greeted by a guy in casual dress, who gave Hannah a hug and a kiss. He introduced himself as Gabriel, as he shook hands with and kissed Ann and Beth. "Let's get you dressed up for the night, then we can get you familiar with the arrangements and such."

He lead to a door marked 'staff' and down a corridor to a room marked 'Lockers' with a 'female' logo on the door, there was a similar door marked 'Lockers' opposite with a male logo. "I'll leave you here. You'll find your costumes in the lockers with your names on. Just change into them and then come and find me in the main room, which is down there then second left and through the door at the end. If you get lost, I'm sure you can ask anyone how to get to the main hall."

As Gabriel walked away, Hannah seemed to take charge. "Let's go and see what our costumes are."

Beth commented that she hoped that they would not be too revealing. Ann privately agreed with the sentiment, but expected the problems to be of a different sort and to come later.

Once in the changing room they easily found their assigned lockers, with their names handwritten on white sticky labels; most of the lockers had printed cards with full names in purpose-built holders.

Ann was the first to open her locker to find out what kind of embarrassing costume was inside; Hannah was already stripping and Beth looked to her colleagues to work out what she should be doing. Beth was confused about what to expect, because over the last week or so, Hannah, a part-time magician's assistant, told her of the fun she had when she assisted, while Ann told of the seemingly long list of incidents where she had been embarrassed or put through great pain by magicians.

As Ann pulled out the costume bag from within the locker she noticed that there were shoes in the bottom of the locker too. Her instant thought was to dread an evening in high heels that would make her feet and calves ache for most of the next day, but when there was more light available she saw that they were a very modest height of heel only a fraction higher than the shoes she wore to the club when she wanted to dance more than anything else.

She unzipped the dress bag to reveal her attire for the evening. The first thing she saw was a black dress with a short skirt, cap sleeves and an absurdly low neckline. A quick measure of the dress against her body in a nearby mirror confirmed that the neckline was wide enough and low enough to expose her breasts. "They can't expect me to wear this, even for all that extra money!"

Hannah, who was already naked, leant forward and reached into the bottom of the bag and brought out a short white top in a cotton material, which if worn under the dress would cover the wearer from the base of her neck to below the dress' neckline and down to her elbows. "Don't be so touchy Ann! This must have fallen from the hanger when it was being put into the locker." She handed the top back to Ann.

Beth looked and spotted something else tucked in the bottom of the bag. This proved to be an white apron that tied round the waist and had two pockets sewn in the front, one of which already carried a small pencil and an order pad and the other was lined with a plastic pouch. "I guess that is to collect tips in," suggested Hannah.

"I see they didn't provide any stockings or underwear, just a starched linen headpiece, on the shelf up there," observed Ann.

"Well you can wear your own bra and knickers; it's not as if anyone will see it unless you flash it. I'm feeling a bit sexy this evening, so I'm not planning to wear any underwear." Hannah pulled her costume from the labelled locker. It was the same as Ann's, but proportioned to her figure.

Ann rehung her costume and removed the white blouse and black skirt she had planned to insist on wearing if the supplied costumes were too risqué. These she hung in the locker and then pulled on the top and the dress over that. After some adjustment to get the sleeves even and the bottom hem of the top to lie flat and not cause a bulge under her dress, Ann announced that she was satisfied with the outfit.

Hannah seemed to slip into her copy of the dress and top as if she was greased, but she told Ann that she had better try out the shoes, before making a final judgement.

Ann tried the shoes and found them to be surprisingly comfortable. Hannah agreed that if she could persuade Gabriel to let her have the shoes she would keep them.

On the top shelf Hannah discovered a brand-new hairbrush and a make-up kit. Ann found she had been supplied with the same, so they both sat at the counter in front of the mirror and put on their faces, while Beth finished getting ready. Then they waited for Beth to finish her face.

The group left the changing area with the locker keys tucked in the pockets of their aprons. They did not get lost and arrived in the main room, where they spotted Gabriel seemingly arguing with another man. The substance of the argument seemed to be about the other man being assigned a space for the props he had brought along that was not big enough and too far away. Gabriel spotted the waitresses and ended his part in the argument, by pointing to a man that Ann recognised as Arthur the Archmage and telling the other man that he should take it up with Arthur as he had been responsible for allocating prop storage.

After greeting them, Gabriel handed them over to someone from the hotel for a quick orientation on how to use the ordering system and the dumb-waiter to get the orders to the kitchen and retrieve the resulting food. They were also introduced to the barman.

With the nuts and bolts of the job clear to them they were returned to Gabriel for some final instructions.

"This is a magician's get together and an event to appreciate the contribution made by our assistants and volunteers and as such they should not need to worry about anything other that enjoying whatever they decide to order and any magical demonstrations they wish to perform. Your main job will be taking orders and delivering those orders, which I'm sure that you are more than capable of. You will have a secondary role of fetching stuff so that magicians who wish to impress the people at their tables can do so. You'll find almost anything that they are likely to request on the tables behind that screen over there. And, of course, you may be asked to help out when someone decides to demonstrate some new twist on an illusion that they have been working on, but that is mostly optional."

While Ann was trying to comprehend the phrase 'mostly optional', Gabriel steered the group of waitresses to a quiet corner and asked them to stand in an outward facing circle and hold hands. As the circle was completed there was a flash and a plume of smoke that rapidly dissipated.

The ladies turned to see what had happened. Their reactions were very different. Beth seemed to wonder what that had been about, while Ann instantly spotted that Beth and Hannah were no longer wearing the black dresses and tops that they had seconds before, but instead were wearing body painted facsimiles. She looked down to check if the same had happened to her body and discovered that it had.

Hannah was nearly as quick to spot the costume switch and seemed thrilled by it, giving Gabriel another hug. Beth still seemed oblivious to the fact she and her fellow waitresses were now naked but for a coat of paint that had not been there before.

"Doors open in five minutes, I hope you'll be ready to greet our guests and guide them to their tables. I'm sorry, but I have a few last minute things to sort out, but please enjoy the evening yourselves and feel free to look around when you take your breaks."

Hannah moved over to talk to Beth without cluing her into the fact she was practically naked. Ann spotted Terry across the room and headed for him.

"I thought you said that you wouldn't let me suffer any embarrassment or pain; now look at me!" was Ann's opening salvo.

"I'm happy to see you too." Terry replied. He took a step back to look at Ann's marginally concealed figure. "Is there a problem?"

"Look at me! You said there would be no embarrassment and no pain. What do you call this?"

"I reckon that's actually a very good look on you; you've certainly got the body to carry it off."

"But you promised..." she did not get any further, because Terry reached forward and place a finger on her lips and she could not speak.

"Are you in any pain?"

Ann tried to say no, but with the magician's finger on her lips she found herself unable to speak, so she shook her head.

"Good. And are you embarrassed?"

Still unable to speak she had time to realise that she was not embarrassed, or even uncomfortable about being nearly naked, If anything she felt more comfortable in a painted costume than she had in the very short skirted costume she had been wearing when she entered the hall.

"I also said that you would regret nothing about this evening; and you won't."

There was the sound of a bell and the doors to the hall opened.

"I suggest that you go and do your job and enjoy the evening and don't worry so much. I also suggest that you don't bring your other colleague's attention to the costume change for at least an hour."

Ann went to help greet the guests, guide them to tables and take drinks orders. She felt happy with an order pad in hand, but could not help wonder what had happened to her locker key.