~~~
Undisclosed Location
The group of contestants had been blindfolded and lead into a bus with specially designed seats to make it impossible to tell the exact route that they traveled. Eventually, the bus came to a stop, and a group of security guards came to help escort them out. They lined the remaining four contestants up in a line. “Alright everyone, you can take your blindfolds off!” Drake announced.
The girls pulled their blindfolds off. In front of them was an absolutely massive office building, with the words ‘Automagic Industries’ in modern red letters above the door. They were standing in the road in front of the office building, a decent size chunk of the entire street was partitioned and being guarded so that no cars or pedestrians would pass by while shooting the challenge.
“Good morning contestants,” Drake said, grabbing the attention of the contestants back from the building, “today’s challenge was gracefully sponsored by ‘Automagic Industries’, who offered us up their building to help facilitate today’s challenge. For those of you who do not know, ‘Automagic Industries’ is one of the leading manufacturers of magical props and enchantments in the world. So, it is my honor then to introduce my cohost for the duration of this challenge, Automagic spokeswoman Trina Miller!”
From the front door of the building, Trina stepped out. She was an African American woman who stood slightly shorter than Drake, her dark red hair parted to the left. She was wearing a professional looking black pantsuit. “Thank you Drake. The name of the game today is ‘Distraction’. As a magician’s assistant, one of your primary roles is to serve as a distraction so that your magician’s deceptions go undetected. If you’ll follow me inside, we can get this show on the road,” Trina smiled, holding the door open for Drake and the contestants.
The insides of the Automagic building were very reminiscent of the modern office building look they were going for. The ceiling was high, with a variety of magic themed art pieces suspended from the ceiling by see through string. About twenty feet in front of them, a security checkpoint was set up, with what appeared to be standard X-ray scanners and metal magic detectors. A guard rail split the bottleneck into two lines for people to enter. Behind those, glass elevators waited to take patrons to the higher floors of the building. “So, as one of the largest powers in the magic field today, ‘Automagic Industries’ prides itself upon its security. So today, you all are going to help see if our wonderful security guards know their protocols. We’ve wrangled up four volunteers to help try and bring contraband into the building. Your task is to cause a distraction and get them past security. Whoever manages to get
~~~
Ophelia’s Attempt
Ophelia’s partner in crime was a girl named Zoe. She wore a lab coat and glasses, and had her brown hair tied into pigtails. She was fast approaching the metal detector when Ophelia put her plan into action.
Ophelia had elected to stay towards the back of her line. Once Zoe was towards the front, she began pushing her body towards the image she had in mind. With a mighty roar, her skin began to ripple, turning black and ripping her dark purple dress. As she grew in stature, black hair began to grow all over her body, her fingers, toes, and jaws lengthening. After a few more moments, the lycanthropic Ophelia let out a mighty roar, leaping into the air and grabbing onto one of the hanging art pieces.
Zoe had walked past the magic detectors, setting it off, but the guards seemed to be paying her less attention as they aimed their sites on Ophelia. One of them picked up her walkie talkie, screaming into it, “We’ve got a code 30-22 in the front lobby. Put the building into lockdown! I repeat! A 30-22!”
Almost as soon as the security guard had shouted the command, a jet stream of green foam shot out from ceiling, soaking Ophelia in it, while the ceiling art strategically prevented the people below from getting hit. As the foam touched ophelia, it hardened transforming into stone and pulling the poor wolf girl downwards. When the weight go too much, Ophelia fell downwards towards the mob of unsuspecting people below, but a safety net was deployed from the wall, catching her and further restricting Ophelia’s movement.
From below, the security guards were already corralling the visitors, including Zoe, into a single area. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain calm. We are currently acting on emergency plans on evacuating the building. Our trained physicians will be down in a moment to ensure that none of you have been bitten or effected by lycanthropy, and then we ask you to kindly leave. If you have urgent business to get to, please call our help line, and they will do their best to reschedule your appointment free of charge.
~~~
Saffron’s Attempt
Saffron’s partner was Julienne, a frizzy redhead in a blue pantsuit. She was only one person behind Saffron’s in her own line when she sprung her plan.
As Saffron stepped forwards through the metal detector, she mentally disconnected all of her body parts, her limbs further separating into more component parts such as hands, elbows, and shoulders as they hit the floor. She got a rather impressive spread on the floor, and she felt it would easily force the security guards to lax on their security to pick all her pieces up and put her back together.
The security guard closest to the metal detector reached down, grabbing Saffron’s head. “Miss, we’re going to need you to pull yourself together, or we’re going to have to use a binding agent on you.”
“Um… I can’t I kind of lost control of them all.”
“Alright then,” the guard said, pulling out a miniature syringe from a compartment on his belt and stuck it into Saffron’s head. Almost like they were attracted by magic, the various limbs and parts of Saffron began pulling towards, and then connecting to, one another. Within a few seconds, Saffron was completely put back together. “There you go miss, now hurry along.”
“Uh… Right,” Saffron said, trying her best to mentally force her body parts apart, but to no avail.
Of course, with no distraction, Julienne stood no chance in getting her contraband past security, the metal detector immediately detecting it, and the officer forcing her to hand it over.
~~~
Jill’s Attempt
Jill’s partner was Karina. She was wearing a rather revealing two piece outfit, however seeing as how this building had mostly people working in magic going in and out, it was not as strange a sight as one might think. Her long brown hair swooped towards the left as she began approaching the magic detectors.
Jill plan was rather simple. She had Karina help in flattening her and then had her stuff her in her pocket. When she walked through, she would unfold her, and then when they inevitably ask her to walk through again before Karina, she would set off the magic detector again on purpose. Thus, when they searched her and found that she was clean, it would be much less suspicious when Karina went through the second time and set it off, they would hopefully just let her go without searching her.
Of course, that’s not what ended up happening. When they had her unfolded and restored, they had Karina step in before her. So, when they checked her pockets, the obviously found the contraband, thus disqualifying her from the running as well.
~~~
Cammie’s Attempt
Cammie’s partner was Jessica, which was a pretty lucky pick seeing as how she was an internet celebrity with a rather large following. She was wearing a pink blouse and a short black skirt. She had her black hair tied back in a ponytail.
Cammie’s plan for a distraction was much more practical than others, as she added a light enchantment to some extra business cards she pulled off a desk and had Jessica and herself wait in line as she passed these out. After her tenth one, she got in line in front of Jessica, and the two began the long linear process of going through security.
The first time a person set off the alarm, the security personnel did a thorough pat-down, but were unable to find the source of the contraband magic (which Cammie had set up to disappear when it passed through the magic detector). The second and third time, the security guards were getting peeved off, but still doing the full thorough search. By the time Cammie and Jessica had reached the checkpoint, they had unplugged the detectors for maintenance, and were doing simple pat downs to keep the line moving.
When Jessica arrived, she was lucky enough to get a fan of hers, who simply asked jokingly if she had any contraband on her, rather than doing any pat down.
~~~
Outside the Automagic Building
“So Trina, how do you think they did?” Drake asked his temporary cohost.
“Well, I think they all gave it their best, but sadly we only had one person actually manage to get their contraband past our security guards. Well, technically two, but I think it’s fair to disqualify the other seeing as how they forced the building to be evacuated. Don’t you?” Drake shook his head yes. “In that case, I’m happy to announce the winner of this competition is Cammie!”
The small crowd that had gathered around the partitions to see what was being filmed cheered, the four assistants giving some appreciative claps.
“Now, in addition to a one month free subscription to our Bodify magic-share app, you’ll also be getting an additional prize from the audience at home. Which I’m sure Drake can handle delivering to you tomorrow?”
“Of course,”
“Well. In that case, I pronounce this competition over!” Trina cheered.
To Saffron: “In terms of those heads, it's a strange story as I often investigate odd paranormal stuff. These heads are included and I got so much to tell you if you are into these kinds of things as there's stuff like the Body Rebellion where it's an odd outbreak of bodies rebelling against their heads. Or there is this magic head shop that sells and trade heads.” -quad2
Ooh. I think I heard about the Body Rebellion a while ago! A cousin of a friend of mine claims that he lost his body when it went rogue during the ensuing riots. Did they ever end up giving an official reason for why the bodies started getting minds of their own? My Dad always suspected he thought it was some foreign power testing out their newest chemical weapon out on some unsuspecting town, and that it grew crazily out of proportion. Personally, i didn’t care what caused it, just that they managed to end it before too many people got infected.
I don’t know what I would do if I ever found a head shop in the wild. On the one hand, it would be really cool to try seeing the world from the eyes of someone else, but on the other hand I love my head and would never want to trade it for something else. I guess if the prices were reasonable I could just buy another head, but from my experiences those sort of places don’t accept cash and only accept equivalent exchanges.
To Cammie: “How well did Jill go with that second part of performing magic on others?” -FlexibleAnatomy
Well, I wasn’t too worried if she didn’t get it on her first time, since magic is undoable by anyone who’s capable of doing magic. It took several attempts before she actually managed to get any effect to occur, but when she was reinflating my stomach, she accidentally went too far and gave me a beer gut. We had a good laugh at that, especially since she managed to turn my innie into an outie.
In the end, her mess up was a pretty good learning experience for her as well, since she got to try restoring me again without actually having to do more magic.