Jill’s Practice

    “So, here’s my idea for a trick,” Jill said, pulling out a large piece of paper from her practice bag.
    “Alright, I’m listening,” David said, watching intently.
    “So, I we do some friendly banter, before you flatten me onto the piece of paper. Then,” Jill pulled out a set of markers as well, “You draw some transformations on me. Then, when you unflatten me, I have the transformations that you did to me still there. We do this like two or three times, and then you turn me back to normal for real.”
    “I see. So your object would be pen and paper then?”
    “Exactly,” Jill said, smiling that David understood what she was going for.
    “It’s a good idea. Great idea really. Pretty simple to execute and leaves a lot of openings for us to be imaginative with the trick,” David said, before delivering his criticisms “the only problem I have with it is that I fear it may be a bit too close to what Leela did for her trick for the first challenge.”
    “Do you think the viewers would see it that way?”
    “Well, I don’t think they would believe you just copied her directly, but it does invite the viewer to compare the two performances, and unless you’re able to outshine her performance…”
    “Then I’m just needlessly risking throwing myself under the bus?”
    “Exactly,” David said, smiling at Jill’s understanding.
    “Alright then, I guess I’ll go back to the drawing board,”
    “Ha ha!” David chuckled at Jill’s unintentional pun, “That’s probably a good plan. Oh! Remember to keep trying to fill your magic reserves. Otherwise we won’t be able to do anything impressive.”
 
~~~  
Saffron & Leela

    “Hey Saffron!” Leela said, in her kindest voice as she spotted Saffron in the kitchen, “How are you?”
    “I’m doing great Leela! How about yourself?” Saffron asked from her position. Currently she was just a head on a silver platter being carried around by a six and a half foot tall animated teddy bear.
    “I’m doing pretty well too. Can I ask what you’re doing?”
    “Well, Jill stopped by my place a couple of nights ago for a sleepover and she had disappeared her body to help her sleep, so I had Fernando here take care of her every need. I thought it looked like a lot of fun, so since I don’t have my first rehearsal with David until Thursday I thought it would be a good idea to try it out for myself!” The giant teddy bear moved the tray holding Saffron’s head around in a way that almost perfectly emulated the jumpy movements she made when she talked.
    “Okay… Anyways, I’m glad I bumped into you actually,” Leela took a moment to adjust her hair before continuing, “So, I saw the poll results for the last contest, and I noticed that you and I received significantly less votes than the other contestants.”

    “I know!” Saffron said, “like, I knew you were going to probably be safe, but I thought I was going to be much closer to the others, seeing as how my show kind of had an improvisational feel to it and everything.”
    “I think you’re examining this contest all wrong then, because when I saw how improvisational and natural everything felt in your performance, it was more of a sign to me that you knew exactly what you wanted to do.”
    “Aww, thanks Leela,” Saffron said, “it really means a lot to me that you thought my show was well done.”
    “Well, it’s because I thought your show was so well done that I was looking to find you in the first place. Saffron, I want to ask if you would be willing to form an alliance with me?”
    “Oh Leela, if this were some sort of longer reality show where it was the contestants themselves actually voting on who to kick off each week, I would love to. But since it isn’t, I’m going to have to respectfully decline. Besides, what would we even do in an alliance.”
    “Well… Uh… We could help each other out by being someone to talk to, or share in the prizes from midweek challenges”
    “Didn’t you come to me last week trying to hock off what you won from the midweek challenge?”
    “Yes…”
    “Leela, I appreciate the offer, but I’m perfectly fine on my own. Fernando notwithstanding obviously.” The giant teddy bear adjusted the tray so that it was balanced on one hand, before lightly petting the top of Saffron’s head.
    “Okay then,” Leela said slightly coldly, “I guess I’ll be off then.”
    “Alright Leela,” Saffron said, “Best of luck for Saturday!”

~~~
Ophelia’s Practice

    “David, we must discuss your performance from last Saturday,” Ophelia said, her chair carrying her across the threshold of the door and into the practice room.
    “Ophelia, remember I’m supposed to be the magician,”
    “Yes, however you must remember that I almost got kicked out on Saturday, and it couldn’t have been my fault, seeing as how my magick was flawless.”
    “Well…” David looked over at Ophelia, seeing that her eyes were flaming red.
    “I would choose your next words carefully David.”
    “From a magical perspective what you did was very technically impressive,” David said, hoping to avoid being eaten for real this time, “It’s just that I feel that the audience may have been there expecting a more standard product, and were taken aback slightly by your… unique style of act.”
    Ophelia pondered this point for a moment, never taking her flaming red eyes off of David, before finally calming down slightly, “Fair enough point David. Although I guess they will simply have to get used to it.”
    “Or-“
    “David,” The red eyes returned.
    “Or you could potentially let me have a slightly bigger role maybe?”
    “David, the only way I could possibly give you a bigger role would be if you accepted becoming my thrall. But alas, you’re married, and I am already committed to another.”
    “So you won’t consider it then?”
    “No.”
    David sighed, “Fair enough. In that case what would you like to practice today Opheliea?
    “I’m glad you asked,” Ophelia aid, cheering up slightly once more, “I took some notes,” she pulled out several pieces of paper with very small notes written upon them.

~~~
Cammie & Jill

    “How just doing the wringer?” Cammie asked, lying down on Jill’s bed and looking towards the ceiling.
    “Cammie. What house do you know that has a wringer still in 2019 that doesn’t use it for magic?” She was sitting at her desk, a piece of paper with a variety of objects written down on it was on the desk in front of her. Most of them were either crossed out, or had little notes next to them commenting on the very limited amount of ways she could use the object.
    “I don’t know! I’m sure there’s at least one house that still uses it.”
    “Even if they were, I’m pretty sure everyone’s seen the classic wringer trick before anyways.”
    “Ooh! How about a lamp then?”
    “A lamp? How would you use a lamp in a magic trick?”
    “I don’t know, become the lampshade or something?”
    “Cammie, if you’re not going to be helpful-
    “I’m trying!” Cammie said, “Besides, I thought of the two of us you would be the more imaginative of the bunch. Seeing as how you managed to fool the others into thinking you actually have magic.”
    Jill’s watch started beeping, which Jill was quick to turn off. “Ugh, I’m sorry I got to take Ophelia’s potion now if I want to have any magic for Saturday.”
    “Do you want me to stick around?”
    “Nah. I already ate dinner and everything. I think I need a bit of alone time to think of some more stuff.”
    “Okay,” Cammie got off of Jill’s bed, making her way to Jill’s door, “Oh! Jill, Thanks.”
    “For what?”
    “You know for what,” Cammie said. Jill just smiled as Cammie left, taking a sip of Ophelia’s potion and feeling her connection to her body disappear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To Cammie: “Was that Russian you were using as your magical focus? I'm curious to know where that habit comes from, as usually the magic I've seen tends to come from boxes or just a mental attunement to magic.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Pretty close, it’s actually Serbian.
    Yeah, most of the magic I can do could be done without saying anything, but having to say magic words is a habit I picked up when my Dad was helping me learn magic. It was explicitly listed in the beginner’s kit my Dad bought me to not train with magic words, that it could lead to only being able to do magic when using magic words, but he read that warning and saw it as a great way to teach me a second language. Joke’s on him though, I really only know enough Serbian for some one or two word phrases.

    To Ophelia: “You can observe others' magical auras? How does that work exactly: does it require close proximity, or line of sight, or can it even work indirectly such as through digital communication? And what does it look like, or is it just a feeling?” -FlexibleAnatomy

    I can indeed observe others’ magical auras. I don’t know the exact distance, but essentially what happens is that when I’m within a certain range of other people, I can feel a sort of tickling near the back of my neck. It’s sort of hard to describe, but everyone gives me a different sort of movement. The more concrete of a feeling I have, the stronger their magick must be.
    Of course, to test my own Magick power is much less impressive. I just do a simple blood test. A drop of my blood mixed with some select herbs and ingredients and I can calculate exactly how much power I have on the standard Mauler-Dukakis scale to the decimal.

    To Cammie: “My apologies for misspeaking. My reference to "veto" was meant to refer to misreporting the votes, which would be absurdly easy and notably not go against the stated rationale for lacking actual vetoes. Remember, this is 'reality' TV, with scare quotes because it's all scripted.” -HeraldOfOpera
   
    Apology accepted. Hopefully in the future we can continue to communicate like rational adults instead of bickering with one another.