“Are you really okay with doing this Holli?” David asked after Holli told him her plan for tomorrow’s show, "You're putting an awful lot of faith in me."
“David, there’s many reasons I trust you more than I ever trusted Arnold. For starters, you were there to help me get back on my feet when my contract finally ran out.”
“True, but that was the bare minimum I could have done after I couldn't get you out of that blasted contract. I just sat idly by, doing nothing while he did whatever he wanted with you.”
“That may be true, but a lot of people I enjoy spending time with now did nothing to help back then. I'm well aware of how iron tight Arnold made his contract, so you need to stop beating yourself up about this," Holli said, patting David on the back in a friendly manner, before perking up and saying, "And besides I know that Amanda would kill you if you did anything bad to me during the trick.”
“Okay then," David said, perking up a bit, before continuing, "but I’m still going to give a disclaimer before we go on that this trick was all your idea then.”
“You can do whatever you want magic man," Holli grinned, "now let’s run the trick again. I want to get the timing just right.”
~~~
Holli & Leela
“Hello Leela, when did you schedule your practice?” Holli asked as she let Leela into her bedroom.
“I’m going next,” Leela said, she had the large suitcase full of knives and swords she had won from the midweek challenge. “I’m just dropping by so I can give you these.”
“Oh wow! Leela, I would love to take them, but I’m afraid I already have a set of my own at home.”
“What?!” Leela huffed exasperatedly. This was her fourth attempt to get rid of these stupid props.
“Yes, Arnold gave them to me as a parting gift. Really, I think he just had an extra set and was trying to get rid of them.”
“Well, I don’t want,” Leela said adamantly.
“Why?” Holli asked, giving her a confused look, “They are a perfectly good brand of knives and swords. I can safely say that they’re among the most enjoyable brands to be stabbed by.”
“I’m just not a fan of the whole… stabbing and cutting thing,” Leela pouted.
“What do you mean?”
“Gah! Never mind, I’ll find someone else to take them,” Leela said, grabbing the suitcase and storming out towards her practice.
~~~
Leela’s Practice
“Hello Leela, How are you enjoying your set of ‘The Forged Box’ Knives and Swords?” David said as she entered the practice room, making sure to get off the product placement.
“Just great,” Leela said sarcastically, “Let’s just get on with practice.”
“Aren’t you going to stretch first?”
“I’m plenty worked up as it is David,” Leela said, giving him the stink eye. “Now let’s get this rehearsal over with.”
“Alright, alright! Calm down there Leela! If you want, we can reschedule your rehearsal so that you cool off a bit.”
“No. It's alright,” Leela said, taking several deep breaths before continuing, “Sorry. I didn't mean to lash out, I'm just a little stressed.”
“Well, don’t worry about the show, you’ve been doing fantastic in practice,” David hugged Leela, before walking off to the props in order to set up their trick.
“It's not the show I’m worried about,” Leela whispered under her breath, eyeing the briefcase of props.
~~~
Leela & Saffron
“Saffron!” Leela said, spotting the strange girl as she left the practice room for the dining room. She was her last hope in ditching this set of knives and swords.
“Oh!” Saffron said, jumping slightly, “Hello Leela. How did practice go?”
“Fine. Listen, Do you want these knives and swords?”
“But aren’t they the ones you won from the standing contest?”
“Yes, but I don’t want them,” Leela said.
“Well… Normally I would but sharp objects and fluffy animals do not mix, so I’m going to have to decline.”
“Gah!” Leela wailed, “Fine! I’ll keep the stupid knives!” She yelled at nobody in particular, before storming out of the dining room and back to her bedroom.
“What was that all about?” Saffron asked the cameraman, who could only shrug.
~~~
Saffron’s Practice
“So, what color is Radium?”
“I’m not sure. Why?”
“Well I need to know for the effect.”
“I believe it’s green, but it might actually be orange.”
“Ooh! So like this then?” Leela stepped behind the box they had used for the trick, when she stepped out the other side, her skin was now a darkish green. In many ways, she reminded David of a blond Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy.
“I’m sure that will be fine, although I think you should probably make it glow too.”
“Okay, one sec,” She stepped behind the box once again, and when she stepped out her green skin was also giving off an alien glow.
“That’s more like it.”
~~~
Saffron & Ophelia
“Hello Ophelia! What brings you to my humble abode?” Saffron said, allowing Ophelia into her bedroom
“I seemed to have misplaced one of my books when I stayed over two nights ago, and have come to get it back.”
“Did it have a red cover?”
“Yes.”
“And a picture of a bunch of weird looking stones?”
“Yes.”
“And had writing that looked like an alien language?”
“It’s not an alien language, it’s ancient Nelgashian. Do you have my book?”
“Yes… But me and the animals… kind of, sort of… used it to make paper crafts yesterday,”
“You what!?” Ophelia said, her hair standing up on end, her eyes flashing red.
“Look!” Saffron said, pointing to Fernando, who was wearing a fancy looking paper crown on his head, “Fernando made himself king of the other stuffed animals, and we held a royal party before Jill showed up for a sleepover!”
“It was an ancient book! It was thought to be lost for over a thousand years!”
“And if it’s any good, I’m sure David made extra copies.”
Ophelia’s watch started beeping. She continued to look angrily at Saffron before saying, “I must go to my rehearsal with David, but when I get out, you will suffer from my full wrath.”
“I can’t wait!” Saffron said as Ophelia left.
~~~
Ophelia’s Practice
“David, is it against the rules to hex our opponents?” Ophelia asked as they finished up their rehearsal.
“Well, according to the rules, you can’t do anything that could hinder their performance in anyway, so if you removed it before the actual show, you should probably be fine," David said, before squinting his eyes and asking, "why do you ask?"
"Because that insufferable Saffron has destroyed a priceless magic artifact and deserves to be punished for her actions!"
"Well, how about I go and have a talk with her instead before you potentially curse her for the rest of her life?"
"Do not worry yourself David," Ophelia said, hand waving away David's concern for his contestants, "I shall not make her suffer... much. Just enough to get the message across."
~~~
Ophelia & Jill
“And that’s how you can easily do Animation Magick.”
“Excellent,” Ophelia said, “Now that I know this information, I shall feel no remorse for the suffering that that annoying girl shall face.”
“Oh! She also said she wanted to give this back to you” Jill said, reaching into her rehearsal duffel bag and pulling out a rather haphazard looking red book. The pages were all still clearly loose, but appeared to be all in there. “She wanted to apologize for ruining your book, and said that she could ask David to try and put the pages back in, but that besides some crumpling they should all be in there.”
“Interesting…” Ophelia said, examine the book and double checking that all of the pages were still there. “I shall spare her then… For now!” Ophelia said, trying to look like she was still mad in front of her new friend.
“By the way, thank you so much for that potion. I slept like a glove last night.”
“Do not worry, and if you ever need any more sleep aid, do not hesitate to come and ask,” Ophelia said, adding softly “and also don’t be a stranger. Please come around.”
“I definitely will, how else will I learn more about magick?” jill smiled, getting a blush from Ophelia.
~~~
Jill’s Practice
“So, do you think I have enough magic stored?” Jill asked.
“Well, sensing your aura it feels like you’re a little short still for what you want to pull off-"
“Darn it!”
“However," David continued, despite Jill's interruption, "it’s definitely much more than you originally had. Who did you ask to do magic on you?”
“I traded Ophelia some information for some magic.”
“Ah. Clever play.”
“Why thank you. Do you think you could spot me for this rehearsal so I can know what the magic feels like for tomorrow?”
“Sure thing.”
~~~
Jill and Cameron
“Jill? Can I come in?” Cameron asked his bedroom door.
“Sure, but you’ll have to let yourself in,” Jill said. David opened the door, finding Jill’s head lying alone on her couch.
“How are you doing? It feels like I haven’t seen you at all the last two days,” Jill said, giving Cameron a warm smile.
“Jill… there’s something I have to tell you,” Cameron sat down and placed Jill's head on his lap.
~~~
Cameron’s Practice
“David,” Cameron said, upon entering the practice room.
“Yes Cameron?” David said, turning around and seeing that Cameron had clearly been crying recently.
“I told Jill about my secret…”
“You did?” Cameron nodded. David walked over, hugging his assistant, saying “I couldn’t be more proud of you. How did she take it.”
“She said it was a lot to take in.”
“Aye, it is. Have you thought about what we talked about. About revealing it to everyone?”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I’m still thinking about it. I’ll tell you Sunday.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Jill: “Why go bodiless in particular? I can guess why in comparison to being headless, but you could have been flattened, divided up into a heap, spent a day with a spike through your belly, or any number of effects. Was it because of who you'd have to talk to, or is it more of a personal preference?” -FlexibleAnatomy
Well, here’s my logic in all this. Best as I understand it from my friends back home and David, magic is sort of like a muscle. When you perform a certain trick for a long time, you strain your magic muscles (also often called magic reserves) such that when you stop doing the trick, your muscle will heal and grow back slightly stronger and able to do greater magic on their own. The only problem is, this muscle doesn’t initially exist in the body, so you need to have someone else strain it for you first in order to get it started.
So, I needed a trick that would affect as much of my body as possible, for as long as possible to actually stretch out my reserves. I couldn’t go to Cameron, because he thinks I’m some sort of magic prodigy, and would think it’s weird if I asked him to put a long form trick on me. I didn’t feel comfortable asking Leela or Holli, because they seemed way too powerful and would probably question why I couldn’t pull off an affect like that on my own. Saffron’s a little too unpredictable for my liking, so I felt like Ophelia would probably be the safest bet to ask for help in my magic. I had read everyone’s character bios before coming here, and saw that she listed her favorite branch of magic as disappearances, so I felt that she would be more sympathetic to helping me out if I tried to get on her good side by making the request something that she likes doing to herself.
To Leela: “How are you liking the Forged Box?” -FlexibleAnatomy
I hate them. Do you want them?
To Ophelia: “Seeing how you managed to reverse the effects of your potion to have the body disappear instead, have you ever consider trying it yourself? Mostly because I’ve read some studies of it being better for people who have trouble sleeping. I'm not a magick user, but I have seen some odd stuff and what I think trying it would be a nice change of pace.” -quad2
I have tried disappearing my body before, however I do not like being so small and helpless. Of course, I’m slightly helpless when I disappear my head, however I do not enjoy being a burden for Lucien to take care of. When I don’t have a head, I don’t have to eat, or breathe, and the only inconvenience I can provide is that I might have to go to the bathroom, which my body will instinctively go to by itself.
When I don’t have a body, I still have to eat. I still have to breathe. I need to make sure that my makeup doesn’t get ruined, and that my hair stays just the way I like it. The only way I can reward Lucien for his good behavior is with a kiss, or something that I refuse to share on TV. If I get the desire to read a book or something, I have to have Lucien flip the pages for me. There’s simply too many things that simply all go away when I vanish my head instead.
To Jill: “How’s being bodiless doing for you?” -quad2
It’s definitely not what I would want to do in my free time, but I guess it’s okay.
To Ophelia: “From what you said about Lucien, I think everybody would understand as the concept is kind of well known at this point. While it is not exactly like what you have, it's still a thing. Just thought you might find this interesting.” -quad2
I’m well aware that people understand what the concept of a thrall is. My point is that a large percentage of normal people, and even many in the magic community, would not approve of our relationship. That’s primarily why I went into detail into explaining what it is, to maybe sway the people who don’t into understanding it is not as large a deal as they may think it is.
To Saffron: “So you're smart enough to actually watch reality TV before appearing on it, I'm sorry for typecasting you initially. Seriously, it's actually kind of baffling that Survivor can keep finding people who not only haven't heard of the show, but are willing to enter a contest called "Survivor" without having any idea how to survive stuff.” -HeraldOfOpera
I will accept your apology for typecasting me, although I’d try to avoid being in a room alone with Fernando if I were you. He’s a little overprotective.
I absolutely love Survivor and Big Brother and I completely agree. Like, you didn’t do some basic research into the show your going into? It seems pretty stupid to me, and a one way ticket home at the first elimination round.
To Leela: “Love your prize, I rather like magical blades, I do hope you enjoy them with someone special. Any plans for after the competition?” -James-MacCloude
Well, my plans are completely dependent upon if I win or lose. If I win, I’m going to accept the assistant contract, probably invest the cash prize, and train under David until he’s taught me everything I possibly can, and then either search another master if I still have unanswered questions, or accept that I have finally learned everything I possibly can about magic, and live off of my investments or enter magic as a magician.
If I lose? Well… I’m not going to think about it seriously… but probably just go back to being a TA so I can finish becoming an English teacher and see if I can find another world class magician to continue learning magic under.
To Ophelia: “Have you in your readings ever come across the legends of the Immortal King of Magicians?” -James-MacCloude
Unfortunately, I have not. As far as I have come across in my studies of the ancient texts, there has never been a society of purely magicians. The closest I’ve found was an ancient tribe that prayed to an unnamed God that was about 50-50 in terms of magic to normal people, and they had a high priestess as their leader, not a king.