“Then why would I even bother opening it if it could potentially be something that would lead to my downfall?” Leela asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s what the audience at home wanted, so you have to,” Drake said, taking a step back from the large present.
Leela sighed, as she knew there was going to be no way in escaping from opening up this present. She approached the box with caution, grabbed the edges of the large orange bow and pulled. The entire box fell apart, revealing the contents within…
“Congratulations Leela! It’s a brand new set of enchanted knives and swords,” Drake read from the card provided to him by a crew member. The twelve knives and swords were arranged on a rack, the smallest having a blade of about two inches, while the largest was around two and a half feet. They each had black leather handles that complimented the slightly less black blades. “This set of weapons was forged and enchanted by the world famous magician smithery, ‘The Forged Box’. Founded in 1782 by Geoffrey Clark & his son, ‘The Forged Box’ has provided countless world-class magicians with the weaponry and props they need to be able to take the world by storm. For all of your large and metallic prop needs, we here at ‘America’s Next Great Assistant’ recommend ‘The Forged Box’.” Drake subtly stuffed the piece of marketing into his pants pocket.
“Great…” Leela said, giving her new set of professional-grade weaponry the stink eye.
“What’s the matter, Leela? Not satisfied with your prize?”
“Well… I’m not going to lie I was more rooting for the potential immunity prize,” Leela said, as the crew members went about sheathing all of the weapons and storing them in a carrying case, which they promptly took to Leela’s room.
“Sadly, that’s the game that’s played when doing something as random as a mystery prize,” Drake said patting her on the back, “but on the plus side, you at least got some very cool looking equipment that you’ll get to take home with you, regardless of if you win or lose."
“That’s true,” Leela said, making her way out of the auditorium. “I just wish it was something I could actually use,” she whispered under her breath.
~~~
Jill & Ophelia
*Knock, Knock* “Ophelia? Can I come in?” Jill asked the door, focusing intently on Ophelia’s room. No response came from the other side. Jill knocked several more times, “Ophelia! Can you please let me in? I want to talk to you about your… Magick.” Jill felt the doorknob finally turn in her hand as the door gave way, revealing Ophelia blocking the entrance to her room.
“And what about my magick is it that you wish to talk about?” Ophelia asked, eying Jill suspiciously.
“Well… you know I’ve always been interested in learning more about your magick,” Jill lied, “It seemed pretty cool at the showcase, and I feel like I could really learn a lot from studying it.”
“R-really?” Ophelia said, her layers of hard emotional shells revealing a fracture for the first time on the show, “Y-you’re actually curious?”
“Of course!” Jill continued to lie, her desire to get into good graces with Ophelia holding back her awful guilt at lying to this poor girl.
“O-oh! O-okay then,” Ophelia said, waving her in, a lot of the fierceness gone from her voice as she conjured a set of black wooden chairs and a strange looking liquid in two glasses, “Come in, sit down then…”
~~~
Saffron’s Practice
“And then, typically, we want to pass something through the hole to prove that there’s actually a hole through you,” David said, passing an apple through the hole in the box at Saffron’s stomach. “And the we close the doors, and you’ll step out whole again,” David explained as he did each action, Saffron stepping out perfectly whole once again, her black short shorts and yellow sports bra sticking tightly to her body.
“So wait, this is just a standard pass through trick?” Saffron asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then why is it called the Radium Girl?”
“Because usually they’ll stick a bunch of rods through the box to prove that you can’t move, and it kind of is reminiscent of the radium rods of a nuclear power plant.”
“Why not just use a box that is clearly too small for me to go anywhere then?”
“Because old magician’s felt that upping the ante would make it more believable, that the magic was real. You have to remember that not everyone believes that what we do is actually magic.”
“I would think that the first headless person they see on the streets would be sort of an obvious hint,” Saffron said.
“You’d be surprised in what people can believe, even despite the increasing amount of evidence to the contrary,” David laughed, “especially in America.”
“Okay. Well now that I know what the trick actually is, I have some ideas for what we could do.”
“Do any of them involve using actual rods of radium to hold you in place?”
“… maybe…”
“Saffron, I’m not going to use real radium rods in the act.”
“Please?” Saffron’s eyes twinkled, “Surely it can’t be that hard to acquire several radium rods.”
“No Saffron, and that’s my final answer.”
“Fine. Spoilsport,” Saffron stuck out her tongue, “I’ll guess we’ll have to go with my plan C then.”
“Plan C?”
“Well if the radium rods were too much, then the full blown nuclear reactor was probably out of the question too.”
~~~
Jill & Ophelia
Jill and Ophelia had been talking about the history of the Ancient Magicks, and about Ophelia’s general attitude on life, and while Jill initially wasn’t all that interested, she found her actual interest on the subject growing as time went along.
“And that’s when I finally had to leave my home,” Ophelia continued, “I just couldn’t take my family disapproving of my interests any more."
“I feel that,” Jill said, “My mom has basically told me that I wouldn’t be allowed home even if I wanted to.”
“It’s rather ironic,” Ophelia commented, “that the maternal figure of the Holy Mother is so important to the Ancient Magicks, and yet both of our mothers have given up on us.”
“Yeah,” Jill said.
The conversation continued on pretty organically for a while longer, before Jill finally felt brave enough to ask the question she had actually came to discuss. “So Ophelia, do you mind me asking you for a favor.”
“Well… you can ask, but it’s going to depend on the actual favor.”
“So, I took a sneak peak at all the character profiles before I actually came over here, and I noticed on yours that you mentioned your boyfriend disappearing your head to sleep at night.”
“That’s true, although Lucien is not really my boyfriend.”
“He’s not.”
“No, I used boyfriend because I fear that most people would not approve of what he actually is to me.”
“What is he then?” Jill asked, genuinely curious.
“Lucien is my thrall,” Ophelia explained, “It essentially means that our Spirits of Gaia are forever intertwined. In exchange for eternal servitude to me in his current and all future lives, he has been granted exclusive access to my reserves of magick when I have become a fully fledged witch. It also grants him access to an animal form of his choosing.”
“Ooh. What did he choose?”
“While most witch’s thralls choose the path of the cat, raven, or bat, my Lucien chose the path of the noble wolf.”
“Oh wow! That’s lovely. You must be so lucky to have him.”
“Thanks,” Ophelia blushed, her pale skins turning pink.
“Anyways, I also struggle sleeping occasionally, and was wondering if you could give me a potion to help.”
“Why sure,” Ophelia said, standing up, and pulling a medium sized vial from a cabinet on her wall. “I made sure to have Lucien pack me extra of my head vanishing potion because I knew I would be away from him a while.”
“Welllll,” Jill’s voice got slightly higher as it trailed on the word, “I was actually wondering if you had a potion that could do the inverse of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean a potion that disappears my body but just leaves my head,” Jill said, “If you don’t have any, it’s perfectly fine.”
Ophelia looked lost in thought for a moment, before making her way to her wall of potion ingredients and picking up a strange looking root and several rocks. “Normally, I wouldn’t even offer you the potion. However, I am in a particularly good mood for some reason, and it’s only a minor addition that I need to mix in, so I shall make it for you.” Ophelia poured the vial of potion into her empty cauldron, the fire sparking up beneath it automatically. She place the rocks in a strange looking pattern around the cauldron’s base, chanting a few words as she threw the root into the brew and mixed it. As she finished chanting, the potion had changed colors from a purplish gray to a more maroon looking color, before scooping the contents of the brew into a slightly larger vial.
As she was about to hand it to Jill, she pulled it back suddenly, “On one condition.”
“What’s that?” Jill said, fearful of what she was going to have to do.
“I need you to convince that strange cheerful girl to teach me the secrets of her animation Magick.”
“Do you mean Saffron?”
“Yes, I tried to get her to teach me earlier, but she said the price was to spend a night with her in something she called a ‘sleepover’. I got close, however her chipper attitude was too much for even my patience.”
“Deal,” Jill said, taking the potion from Ophelia, “and I think I know just how I’m going to do it.”
~~~
Ophelia’s Practice
“David, I told you. If we are going to work together, you must match my style of performance exactly,” Ophelia said, chastising David for the eighth time that rehearsal thus far.
“Ophelia, *huff* I think you and I differ greatly in what we think the role of the assistant is,” David commented from his position.
“I do not know what you mean,” Ophelia said innocently, “I have already acquiesced to your demands to actually perform something close to the trick.”
“Well yes,” David said, struggling, “However, I wouldn’t really call those demands and more so the entire point of the challenge!”
“Correct, and my part of the challenge is that I must make sure the style and tone of the trick is entirely my own, yes?”
“I guess…”
“Great, then you will stop complaining and struggle harder.”
“Fine, but remember what I said about the ending.”
“Yes, yes. You’ll get your ‘win’,” Ophelia grinned, “but just because I didn’t pick Assistant’s Revenge doesn’t mean I won’t give you a good fight.”
~~~
Jill & Saffron
“Would you like a scone, Jill?” Saffron asked.
“Yes, please!” Jill said. Saffron took one off the place and held it in front of Jill’s mouth. she nibbled on it slightly and at an even pace as Saffron fed her. She would normally take the common courtesy to feed herself, especially since she was the guest in Saffron’s bedroom, however it’s a little difficult to feed yourself when you are just a head resting on the lap of a giant teddy bear.
“So, why are you just a head?” Saffron asked as she passed the plate around the room similarly to how she did the night before.
“It’s part of David and I’s training,” Jill explained, “He thought it would be best for me to try and minimize myself so I could store up some magic reserves for the show.”
“Ooh! Is it going to be something as big as what you did last week?”
“Hopefully!”
“So is the animation magic to help spice up your show also?”
“Not really, it’s more so because I would love to have some stuffed friends of my own in my room.”
“And it doesn’t have anything to do at all with Ophelia?” Saffron asked suspiciously
“W-what? No. Of course not,” Jill lied.
“Really? Because she was in here just yesterday asking about it too.”
“Wow! What a coincidence then. I’m really only here because I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I’m a little lonely in my plain old bedroom and since I’ve seen your big teddy bear-”
“Fernando,” Saffron corrected.
“Yes, Fernando. Since I’ve seen him coming in and out of your room, I thought it would be cool to have my own to snuggle with and hopefully help me sleep better.”
Saffron took a long time just staring at her, and Jill was almost certain that the jig was up, but then thankfully Saffron perked up saying, “Okay then! I’ll make sure to ask David to get you one then, after I teach you some Animation magic tomorrow morning.”
“Really? You’d do that for me?” Jill said.
“Of course I would Jill,” Saffron said, “After all, we’re all in this together. Just because we’re trying to win is no reason to be at each other’s throat with deceit and manipulation.”
“R-right…”
“Besides, I was going to ask David for another bear of my own anyways.”
“Why?”
“Well, a question from yesterday gave me a great idea to swap my consciousness into the bear so that me and Fernando could chill out and be bear buddies.”
“…Sounds like a great idea, Saffron!”
~~~
Cameron
“Should I tell her?” Cameron asked himself aloud. He was pacing in his room, occasionally glancing to himself in the mirror on every pass. “If I don’t tell her, then I’m screwed in the competition. But if I do tell her… it means I’m basically telling the whole world… Gah!” David flopped onto his bed, preparing for a restless night once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Leela: “That's two for two you've won so far. I'm sure that's going to cause a mix of emotions from everyone at home: some fans of yours amazed by your skill, some people hoping this will break in the hopes that an underdog may beat you, some people thinking that you're perhaps "too good" for this contest. What sorts of challenges are you not looking forward to?” -FlexibleAnatomy
I don’t see why I would want to reveal my weakness here by discussing challenges I don’t want to do. It would be like asking the producers to simply copy my ideas and ensure that I wouldn’t win.
As for the fans, there will always be haters. Best I can do is give as perfect of a show as I can and hope that my pure skill will shine through.
To Cameron: “Did you end up making it to the toilet? Four hours is a long time to hold your urine.” -FlexibleAnatomy
It’s funny, I really did have to go, but when I realized there were only two people left, the feeling kind of disappeared. As the time went on, the need to go kind of reached the boiling point where my body got the message it wasn’t going to get to go to the bathroom, so it stopped sending me the signal. When I finally woke up, (on the stage, because why would anyone on set be kind enough to just get me back in my bed?) I managed to finally get to the bathroom and not piss my pants on national television.
To Amanda: “Congrats! Do you know anything about your child yet? If they're a boy or a girl? Also, I agree with Saffron: going the better part of a year without magic would be torture to me as well. I'm sure it's worth it, but how have you been holding up? It can't have been smooth sailing thus far.” -FlexibleAnatomy
Thank you so much for your kind words! The only thing that we know is that she is a girl, and that the due date is some time in August. We’re planning on naming her Isabella.
When David and I realized I was pregnant, we didn’t know you weren’t supposed to do magic, so we weren’t too concerned until we went to the doctor and he warned us of the complications that could arise from any magic use during the second or third trimester and to stop using it as soon as possible. Thankfully, we had just finished our most recent European tour, so we started planning for me to formally announce that I was retiring as his assistant. He wouldn’t have any of it, saying that I was simply too good to lose, but I had told him when we started trying for a baby that if we were successful, I was going to stay home and raise him or her properly.
I’ve been doing my best, but I will say that’s it’s been really rough and there have been a couple of close calls. I was the worst sleep floater of all time before the pregnancy, so we had to get a mutual friend of ours to craft an all natural blend to cure it. I've also had to stop myself from conjuring things like the TV remote or my laptop on multiple occasions. So, it’s been hard, but I’ve been holding in there. It’s especially helpful when you have a world class magician as your personal servant *wink*.
To David: “How legally sadistic will your challenges be? It's mostly because game shows can be really morbid and your challenge, while not at the scale of other things I seen, seems kind of cruel. Like were there any regulations when making your show or they legally signed a contract where you get to do whatever to them? Don't want the contestant end up being like this one show where the host is literally trying to murder them and everyone around them for the sake of entertainment you know.” -quad2
Well, Drake and his ilk are primarily the ones who are coming up with the midweek challenges, I was simply informed that I had to prepare concepts as a basis for a magic show each week. The only thing they told me was that they weren’t going to do any challenges that would cause permanent damage to any of the contestants.
As for contracts, everyone on this show is on an airtight, magically enforced NDA (Producer’s Note: Non-Disclosure Agreement), including myself, so I’m physically incapable of discussing them with anyone. However, I can promise you that I have no desire to kill or maim or permanently incapacitate my contestants in any way, and that our show is consistent with the Magic & Television Act of 1990 and with California’s regulations on Reality TV.
To Saffron: "Clever girl, throwing a non-elimination challenge that's blatantly obnoxious. Looking at the potential prizes, you were right to do so as all of them amount to being comfort/luxury prizes that fail to make up for ten hours in a tiny box.” -HeraldOfOpera
I’ve seen Survivor before. They did the exact same challenge in the second season, except the were standing on poles rather than in boxes. It seemed like the most boring thing imaginable. The only thing I’m going to focus on is making sure I don’t lose any of the elimination challenges, and I’m sure I’ll be fine.
To David: Mr. Daniels was my dad. You can call me Harold. -HeraldOfOpera
Alright then.