Saffron’s Practice

    “I have a great idea for a show, David!” Cammie cheered, Fernando not far behind her
    “*Sigh* What is that bear doing here again?” David sighed.
    “Come on David. Don’t tell me you forgot the deal you made with me last week.”
    “What deal was that again?”
    “You promised me that Fernando would get to be in the show this week.” She scratched the large bear’s stomach. If her could make noise, he would surely growl in approval.
    “Saffron, I was being sarcastic, and you know that.”
    “But I have a really great idea for how to include him this time!”
    “Saffron, you were second to last in this last round. Do you really feel like that including Fernando is the hill you want to die on?”
    “Yes.” She said adamantly.
    David sighed, “fine, tell me your plan and I’ll decide whether he can be part of the trick or not.”
   
    One plan recounting later, David’s tune had changed. “That might just be crazy enough to lead to a decent act.”
    “So does that mean Fernando will get to be in the act?”
    “I’m probably going to regret saying this, but yes. The bear can stay.”
     “Eee! You hear that Fernando! You’re going to be a star!” Fernando lifted Saffron up into his bear arms and turned around in a circle.

~~~

Jill & Cammie

    “Okay Jill. Try again,” Cammie was lying down on a table, her hands by her side. Despite the fact that they had been slacking last week, with the adjustment period of discovering that Cameron was actually Cammie, they had returned to their private rehearsal together with a renewed vigor.
    “I can’t Cammie, it’s just too hard for me,” Jill swung the rolling pin she had been using to try and flatten Cammie by her side.
    “Jill, I’ve told you. Magic isn’t going to be much use for you if you can only do it on yourself.” Cammie said, sitting up.
    “Why do I even need to be able to do magic on other people. I’m the assistant. I’m not the one who’s expected to do magic.”
    “Mhm. And tell me, when your magician asks you to assist him in performing a trick on stage, what are you going to do?”
    “… Alright you’ve got me there.”
    “Great. Now concentrate on the effect you want to see and push your expectations upon me!” Cammie said, lying back down, eyeing her expectantly.
    Jill sighed, picking up the rolling pin for what felt like the hundredth time that rehearsal. Jill thought hard about what it felt like whenever someone else would flatten her: The feeling of her body giving way to the flattening device, the slight tingle of magic that followed any transformation, the loss of control as her muscles and bone lose their dimensions. Focusing on these feelings, she tried her best to project them outwards, imagining Cammie sharing in her experiences. She clenched the rolling pin between her hands, her knuckles whitening in her concentration, and pushed down on Cammie’s stomach once more.
    Unlike her previous attempts, she could feel her friend’s flesh give way slightly. Feeling emboldened, she began to roll the pin back and forth across her stomach. After several rolls, she felt the magic stop activating. She looked down at her handiwork, and was dismayed to see that she had not managed to flatten Cammie’s stomach completely, but did manage to get it about half way there. “Hey, not bad for your first success!” Cammie said, smiling at her friend.
    “Not bad? I didn’t get the effect to activate all the way,” Jill said, frustrated with her lack of progress.
    “That’s true,” Cammie said, sitting up, which was considerably more difficult since the muscles she would use to do this had been crushed, “but, you managed to get an affect to occur. Don’t forget you didn’t start practicing magic until a couple of months ago. There’s no reason to feel stressed out that people who have been practicing for years are able to do more than you.”
    “I guess that’s fair…” Jill said, cheering up slightly.
    “Great! Now cheer up. I can’t have you being depressed when I teach you next part of performing magic on others.
    “And what’s that?’
    “How to reverse the effect.”

~~~
Ophelia & Amanda

    Ophelia was walking around the greenhouse when she spotted the familiar form of Amanda. “Mrs. Angel?” she asked.
    Amanda turned to look at her, “Oh my, hello there. Your name is… Ophelia? Correct?”
    “Yes Mrs. Angel,” Ophelia curtseyed to her, “it is an honor to meet someone of such high stature within the performance magick community.”
    “Come along and walk with me. People so rarely walk down this path,” Amanda said, waving her over.
    “As you wish,” Ophelia said, following along.
    “So Ophelia. Why did you call me ‘someone of high stature’?”
    “Well, Ms. Angel-“
    “Please dear. No need to be so formal. Amanda is fine.”
    “As you wish, Amanda.” Ophelia said, on the verge of curtsying again before she caught herself, “According to the Ancient Texts, it is through the maternal Spirit of Gaia through which all magick is derived. Thus, as the female element of David’s act, it would make sense that you would be a person with great Magick ability.”
    “Well, I don’t know about ‘great Magick ability’,” Amanda chuckled, “but I will thank you for the compliment.”
    “It pleases me that you take it as such,” Ophelia gave a slight smile.
    “I must say that David seems to have pegged you incorrectly.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, when David was describing you to me, he said you had a ‘strong personality’, however just from my initial impression of you, you seem to be a rather sweet individual.”
    Ophelia decided to ignore this comment, but kept that comment in the back of her mind so that she could properly punish David later. “So, when’s the due date?”
    “Well, it’s been about eight months, but according to David his family has a habit of arriving a bit earlier than expected, so it could be any day now,” Amanda rubbed her stomach affectionately.
    “And I assume you will be training her to be a successful witch from birth?”
    “Oh no. We’re banning magic in the household until she can talk in full sentence.”
     “But why would you want to prevent her from reaching her full potential? As the daughter of two of the strongest Magick users I have ever met, it’s all but destined that she will be one of the most powerful witches of her generation.”
    “That may be true,” Amanda said, “however, a lot of my assistant friends had children long before I did, and in every single case using magic around them and allowing them to use magic as early as possible led to many of their children becoming spoiled and unable to solve their problems with anything but magic. I want Isabella to live as normal a childhood as possible so that when we finally introduce magic to her, she can appreciate it the same way David and I got to. Surely you understand what that was like.”
    “I-I would prefer not talking about my upbringing before I realized that there was a Spirit of Gaia within me.”
    “And I will honor that wish, but you must admit that your ‘revelation’ would have been much less impactful if you hadn’t lived normally before hand.”
    “I see what you mean.”
    “In many ways, it’s like a good magic trick,” Amanda said wistfully, “you can’t have a successful reveal unless you allow a little build up beforehand.”
    “Those sound like very wise words, Amanda,”
    “Well,” Amanda huffed as they rounded the final corner of the path in the greenhouse, “I believe that is enough walking for me today. Thank you so much for joining me.”
    “Oh no Amanda. The thanks is all mine,” Ophelia said, curtsying once more.
    “Well, if you ever feel like talking again, please do not hesitate to drop by,” Amanda smiled, “I so rarely get visitors.”

    To Ophelia: “I am positively certain you can adapt the Ancient Magicks to a futuristic setting. Classic tales and mythological elements have been incorporated into modern and future settings for ages now: Liches as mob bosses, Hags ruling post-apocalyptic wastes, Norse mythology adapted seamlessly in a Cyberpunk setting. One of my favourite sci-fi TV shows explored the very same lessons Shakespeare wrote about centuries ago. Just because the Magick itself is ancient, doesn't mean it can't have a place in other time periods. You've done a great job so far showing that it can fit in the present day, after all.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Thank you for your kind words, Penny. Both your words and Jill’s have inspired me, and I shall return to this contest with a vigor thus forth unseen.

    To David: “I haven't lived in a place with landmarks "worthy" enough for vanishing, so I'm curious about the logistics: how much trouble was it, getting clearance to vanish entire buildings? Besides the scope of the vanishing itself, getting the city of New York to okay several buildings temporarily being removed from existence must have been a struggle.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Well, I can tell you right now, performing that trick is what we in the business like to call a ‘Logistical Nightmare’. Which is why the old record of seven, which was set by my good colleague Cornelius Fogg in the 1880’s by disappearing what he deemed the seven wonders of the modern world, stood for so long.
    Of course, back in those days there was far fewer restrictions one had to deal with in designing and performing magic tricks. Magic had a sort of rebellious edge, and it was normal for extensive world changing magic tricks to be planned and completed with no prior planning. There are many days where I miss the old fly-by-night attitude of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.
    When I was planning out my trick, I wasn’t going to chicken out by only doing eight landmarks, I was going to go all out. So, for each one, I had to contact both the local and state government and get permission and schedule the available times I could vanish them. Which, let me tell you, finding a singular day and time that matched up worldwide was nearly impossible. Then, I had to try and find an appropriate filming crew in each location that was willing to come out and prove that the landmark had actually vanished. Then there’s the issue of actually visiting each location to see up the enchantment to actually vanish the building and to reappear it afterwards. It was simultaneously awful and one of the most fun things I’ve done in my career.
    Overall, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. I mean, I wished more places had accepted my invitation so that I could set the record higher, but I mean forty landmarks isn’t that bad. And although it was a pain, it has helped in inspiring other magicians to perform more complex and worldwide tricks, which I see as a massive win overall.

    To Saffron: “I'm glad you took the idea to heart. It's literally based on the odd disembodied heads I’ve met in my life. Though you should really warn Ophelia if you do it again.” -quad2

    Well, you can tell those heads thank you from me! <3
    Ophelia and everyone else will get over it. The only reason I didn’t tell them was because I know that they would never accept to actually transforming that way for the party. Once they realized that they weren’t in any danger, they warmed up to the idea of the party, so I feel like if we do it again they will be more down to whatever transformation I offer up.