Ophelia & Saffron

    “I have suffered many trials in my training to become a full witch, and I must say, this is by far the worst thing I have ever done in this or any of my past lives,” Ophelia said.
    “Shush you! Fernando, can you pass me one of the macaroons?” Saffron asked, the large bear giving her a nod and passing her a plate with a pyramid of pink macaroons on top. She was wearing a pair of yellow pajamas with smiling suns spotted about. “Would you like macaroon Ophelia.”
    “No,” Ophelia scowled. Instead of the black outfit that Ophelia normal wore, she was wearing a pair of pink pajamas with little unicorns dotted around. Her hair was done up in pigtails, giving the best view of her pale white face in the entirety of the show thus far.
    “Come on Ophelia, you know you want one,” Saffron teases, passing the plate around below her nose, as though being able to smell the macaroons would entice Ophelia to change her mind.
    “I said I’m not hungry!” Ophelia’s normally purple eyes (which were now easily visible) briefly flashed red.
    “Suit yourself,” Saffron said, grabbing a handful of macaroons and passing the plate to the rabbit that was sitting on the other side of her.
    “Are we going to get to the part where you teach me how to do animation magick yet?” Ophelia asked, a tinge of desperation in her voice.
    “Now now Ophelia, don’t rush me. It’s never a good idea to practice magic on an empty stomach,” Ophelia nibbled away at her handful of macaroons.
    “Well, maybe if you didn’t serve twelve courses of finger food, we would be full much sooner,” Ophelia said, gritting her teeth.
    “Maybe you’re right, but then how would we enjoy all these mini cheesecakes!?” Saffron said, pulling a tray of said finger food out from behind his back.
    “UGGH,” Ophelia groaned, as Saffron began passing the new plate of finger food around the circle of stuff animals.

~~~
Jill’s practice

    “Alright Jill. That’s looking much better already!” David said, as Jill confidently strutted between the two marks.
    “Thanks David! Cameron worked with me almost all day yesterday to try and iron it out.”
    “Really? That was very kind of him. Did he help you out with your little magic problem at all?”
    “Well… The thing is… He doesn’t exactly know about that.”
    “That’s fine, but you do realize now that the contest has begun, you are going to have to actually help by doing some of the magic, which you’re not going to be able to do without some magic reserves.”
    “Yeah. I know. Since you’re the expert, what would be the best way to build up magic?”
    “There’s a variety of ways to build up magic Jill, but the easiest way would probably be to remain in a transformed or reduced state for an extended period of time.”
    “When we’re done here, would you be able to magic me up then?”
    “Normally I would, but the Producers already yelled at me for not being impartial in the first round, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to figure that one out on your own.”
    “Fair enough,” Jill said.
    “Great. Since you seem to have the basics down better, let’s move on to actually trying out the Squeeze Box so we can work on some timing.”

~~~
Holli & Leela

    “-And then I told him if he needed me, I was going to be in my trailer,” Holli told Leela, causing her to elicit a laugh. The two were sitting on opposite sides of her mini-kitchen’s small dining room table. They each were drinking a cup of Green Tea in fancy blue china.
    “Wow Holli. You certainly have had a long and interesting career,” Leela complimented, taking a small sip of her tea.
    “Why thank you Leela. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to share these stories with somebody willing to listen. Lawrence is sick to death of them, and none of the kids or grandkids come over much any more,” Holli took a sip of her tea as well.
    “It’s there loss then,” Leela took another sip, her heart beating a mile of a minute before she continued, “So Holli… I’ve been meaning to pass a question by you.”
    “Sure thing Leela, what is it?”
    “Well… it’s just that you have been in the field for a very long time now, so I bet you’ve have a ton of experience doing a whole variety of tricks.”
    “I have. So stop dancing around the point and just tell me what you want.”
    “I was just wondering… If you were okay with it that is, if you wanted to form an alliance with me?
    “An alliance? Gee Leela, I don’t know. I know I may not look like it, but I think I’m too old to be doing something as clichéd as forming an alliance with someone else on a reality TV show…”
    “Well that’s the thing, it wouldn’t even be a real alliance I guess. The votes are decided by the audience anyways. I guess what I really mean is sort of like… A partnership?”
    “Okay. And what would we do in this partnership?”
    “Just be someone we can bounce ideas off of without having to worry about the other stealing our idea. Or try to aim to work together if there’s a group challenge. Or if one of us isn’t going to win, trying to sabotage the other’s chances so the other can win. You know, standard partnership sort of stuff.”
    “Hmm…” Holli thought, taking another sip and finishing off her tea, “I guess that sounds fine with me.”
    “Great!” Leela sighed, her butterflies finally gone.
    “Now,” Holli said, standing up and filling the teapot with water once more, “would you like some more tea?”
    “I would love some,” Leela said.

~~~
Cameron’s Practice

    “Hey David! I was thinking we should probably start with just running through the trick- What are you doing?” Cameron asked as he entered the practice room. David was waiting for him, sitting on top of a metal chair, a second one placed in front of him.
    “Cameron. Sit down please,” David said, gesturing to the second chair.
    “Okay?” Cameron said, sitting down.
    “Now Cameron. Could you please explain to me what happened at the first challenge?” David said, giving him a stern look.
    “W-what do you mean?” Cameron asked, his voice slightly shaky, "nothing happened."
    “Don’t play that game with me Cameron. Like you said yourself, I am a word class magician. I could spy the trick you pulled from a hundred miles away. I’m just giving you the chance to admit it yourself before I reveal it.”
    “What do you mean trick?” Cameron asked, “what I did was magic!”
    “No Cameron,” David sighed, “You know I hate revealing another magician’s secrets, but I would hardly call what you did magic, so please just confess.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I did real magic!”
    “No Cameron! What you did was just a standard card shuffle with a bit of mentalism thrown in!”
    “Wha-“
    “Oh please Cameron. ‘I tripped and the cards lined themselves up’? If that was the case, why would all the cards land so that you could see their face. If you used magic, you could have just made them land face down.”
    “But you-“
    “I only played along as a professional courtesy, one you did not offer me by doing such a mediocre parlor trick in place of a proper magic act.”
    “… Well David you see, I couldn’t do magic that night because-“
    “Don’t try to weasel out by saying you had no magic reserves ready. You’ve been in the field for several years now and should have more than enough to never run out. Now,” David said, standing up, “If you really are a magician assistant like you claim, you know that there’s not supposed to be any secrets between us. If you’re not going to share you’re wasting my time and your own.”
    David starting making his way towards the door, before Cameron finally spoke up, saying “Wait!”
    He ripped off his microphone before walking over to David. He whispered something to David that was barely able to be picked up by his microphone, “Look. I’ll tell you, but only on the promise that what I say is kept private.”
    David looked at him for several moments, before whispering back to him, “Alright.” David walked over to the camera crew filming this interaction, asking them to leave the room for a brief moment and turning off his own microphone.
    When the camera crew walked back in, it was quite clear that Cameron had been crying, but both him and David had a look of renewed confidence as they finally started practicing Cameron’s spin on the Missmade.

To Leela: “You’re really big on flexibility, but so far your stretches have all been magically aided in some way or another. If you performed a mundane stretch, no magic involved, what would be the limit of your current flexibility? Also, are there any good resting stretches you could recommend for a fellow flexibility lover?” -FlexibleAnatomy

    I can tell you that I wouldn’t be able to do three quarters of the stretches that I enjoy without my magic. You see, I’ve always been an athletic person, however I definitely shirked on my stretches in high school and college. When I went on my self discovery tour, I discovered yoga at around the same time as when I started practicing with my fourth master. Really, I only discovered it because he recommended it to me as a way to better understand the principles and magic he was trying to impart on me. So, since I was learning them in tandem, they’ve kind of always been mixed together in my mind. I imagine if I was actually able to not just instinctively activate my magic when I do my stretches, I’d probably be able to do the easy stuff like butterfly or the sun stretch.
    As for some good resting stretches, it all kind of depends on how flexible you are normally. If you’re a beginner, I’d recommend checking out a guide on some of the easier Yoga poses. These are usually the classics that you’ll always hear, like Downward Dog, Bridge Pose, Seated Twist, Triangle Pose, Pigeon Pose, etc. I know that it may seem boring or simple to you, but these poses can really help in improving your flexibility and your core in general. If you’re feeling more adventurous, I’d recommend some harder stuff, like Firefly Pose, King Pigeon Pose, or the Shoulder-Pressing Pose. If you’re really crazy, go for the Trifold! I’m not sure if that’s what you wanted in terms of recommended stretches, but I hope you may find it helpful.

To Saffron: “Based on what you’ve said before, has anything ever happened to your head? Like arms and legs are sad to lose, but I felt that the head is the most dangerous thing to lose. Again, just curious and no need to lose your head over this.” -quad2

    Ha ha! Great head pun!
    Things have definitely happened to my head before, but thankfully nothing permanent. I’m always extra careful when it comes to my head, because unlike with arms and legs, it’s a lot harder to find someone who’s willing to lend you their head, especially when you can’t talk to ask them.
    I can’t share a few of my stories (PG-13 program after all), but I will tell you the most recent one. So, a few weeks before I flew over here to film the show, my younger sister thought it would be a great idea to steal my head and my ID so that she could go drinking with her older friends after school. Of course, it’s a lot harder to know when to wake up when you don’t have a head, so by the time my body finally regained consciousness naturally, I was going to be late for a tour I was supposed to give at the Smithsonian!
    Luckily for me, my oldest sister taught me some basic astral projection so I wouldn’t be completely screwed if someone stole my head, so I was able to make my way over to the metro with relatively little problem, save for the general freaking out of a lot of normal people. I got there about 15 minutes late, and thanked my lucky stars that somebody else in the group actually could speak sign language. Let me tell you, when I finally got off my shift, I went straight to get my head back, and she got herself and her friends banned from that bar for life.
    Best part is, my Dad punished her for a week by taking her head from her.