Cammie’s Practice

    “Okay Cammie. Do you have any idea of the story you want to tell with your trick?”
    “Well, I was thinking we do something like Star Wars or something. You know, high fantasy. Maybe about a warrior princess who can’t be killed.”
    “Really now?” David asked, confused.
    “Yeah. Why do you think it’s a bad idea.”
    “Oh no. It’s just… You’ve kind of had a pretty incredible story already, you know with Alex and everything. I would think you’d want to tell something like that. Maybe about a magician who pretends to be an assistant for the one they love.”
    “David, I’ve already lived that story. I thought you wanted us to push ourselves for these challenges.”
    “That’s true, but I also recommend using what you know to your advantage, and you’ve been relatively close to getting kicked out now twice in comparison to the others.”
    “Well… That may be true, but I have something that the other two don’t.”
    “Alright, and what’s that?”
    “I’m not just winning this for myself. I also trying to win this for Alex,” Cammie looked at David with determination. “So will you trust me and let us at least test out my idea?”
    “Okay then,” David smiled. “Lead the way.”

~~~
Jill & Amanda

    Jill was just taking a walk through the various rooms of the house she had permission to explore when she ran into Amanda. She was sitting in the dining room alone, a bowl of Apple Jacks with banana slices on her left and a plate of spaghetti with rather strange looking meatballs on her right. As she approached, Jill realized that those meatballs were in fact eyeballs. “Hey Amanda. How are you?”
    Amanda looked up from the food that she was scarfing down. “Oh!” She finished chewing what was in her mouth, before continuing to address Jill, “Hello dear. Your name is Jill, right?”
    “Yep. That’s a pretty interesting lunch you’ve got there,” Jill eyed the spaghetti like it could jump out at her at any moment.
    “Yeah. One of the downsides of being a mother with a ton of magic experience. Other people have cravings for food like ice cream and ribs. I get a desire for spaghetti and eyeballs.”
    “Has the magic made any of the other symptoms of pregnancy weirder?”
    “Not particularly. Supposedly, depending on how much time you’ve spent in tricks involving elasticity, it can lead to the kicks of the baby being more pronounced on your stomach and the birth being slightly easier, but I’ve not really noticed that much of a difference in either case in comparison to what doctors describe as a normal birth.”
    “That’s interesting,” Jill said, not sure where else to take this conversation.
    “So dear, are you grabbing lunch? I can provide you some company if you need it.”
    “Oh no. I was actually just walking around, trying to pass the time a bit while Cammie is in rehearsal.”
    “Ah yes. I don’t believe I’ve probably introduced myself to her yet,” Amanda said, thinking aloud.
    “I never realized it, but with only the three of us left, this huge castle seems so empty. I used to be able to walk around and maybe run into Cammie in the library, or head to Ophelia’s room to hang out with her, or have a brief run-in with Holli in the kitchen. But now, everywhere I go are just empty rooms.”
    “Yes, sadly David and I never really use this castle for much. We’re usually traveling around the world on some tour or for some press appearances. In many ways, having this baby will finally put this castle to a good use.”
    “When’s the due date?” Jill asked.
    “The doctor’s said it could be any day now. In which case, David’s timing in signing up for this show couldn’t have been more perfect.”
     “Yeah, he seems to be pretty good at that,” Jill joked.
    “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. He say’s he can’t see the future, but I don’t think he’s ever been in an unexpected situation in his life,” Amanda laughed. “So dear, I have a question for you.”
    “Yeah?”
    “I believe on your application you said you were a student still?”
    “Yep.”
    “So, what are you going for a major?”
    “Well… I was undecided at the end of my freshman year, but I think based upon my experience here I might want to apply for a Practical Magic degree. Maybe with a History of Magic minor.”
    “If you don’t mind me asking, how are you paying for your degree?”
    “My parents were going to pay for it… before they basically disowned me. So I’ve been working full time with a really light course load, which has been pretty easy to do since I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.”
    “Well, since you’re going to be going for a magic degree, it may be a smart idea to apply for a scholarship from the Angel Magic Scholar Foundation. I’m sure I could put in a good word for you,” Amanda said, winking to her.
    “Wait, seriously?” Jill asked in excitement.
     “Of course I’m serious. The foundation is looking for people like you who have a genuine interest in magic to help out.”
    “Thank you Amanda!” Jill said, reaching down and hugging the pregnant woman.
    “Don’t mention it,” Amanda smiled, returning the hug. “Now go practice! You have a show in four days!”

~~~
Saffron

    “Fernando! I’m bored!” Saffron whined. She was lying down on her bed, her mountain of stuffed animals frolicking around on the floor. She had her head hanging over the side of the bed, and she was looking at the large bear upside down.
    The bear, who still had no vocal chords, shrugged.
    “I can’t go hang out with Jill!” Saffron said, sitting up, filling in the bear’s dialogue in her head. “Besides, I think things are still weird with us since that time on the roof last week.”
    The bear rubbed his tummy.
    “I know that she said it was fine. But everyone says that after an emotional moment like that. You wouldn’t understand ‘cause your a bear, but humans like to avoid conflict in any way possible.”
    The bear picked up one of the smaller stuffed bears that had started climbing him like a mountain, placing her back on the floor.
    “It would be too weird if I just went up and talked to Cammie out the blue. I haven’t talked to her alone since she revealed to us all that she was a girl the whole time. She probably thinks I’m avoiding her at this point,” Saffron sighed, flopping back down on the bed, this time lying on her stomach, her hands on her head.
    The bear reached forward, pushing the hair that had gone into her face out of the way.
    “Thanks Fernando.”
    The bear made a cheering motion with his paws.
    “No Fernando! I can’t just go hang out with Amanda. She’s probably busy doing pregnancy things, or spending intimate time with David or something.”
    The bear tilted his head sideways.
    “*sigh* Yes, please.” Saffron said.
    Fernando reached forward, grabbing Saffron’s head with both hands and pulling it off. He placed the head in his lap, and pointed towards one of the orange horses that was prancing around in a circle with the other stuffed ponies. The horse nodded, and walked over to the sole dresser in the room. He head butted it several times, until the hair brush that had been sitting on it fell to the floor. He nudged a monkey who was nearby, who nodded, grabbing the hair brush and bringing it over to Fernando. Fernando accepted the hairbrush, awkwardly holding it between his two hands as he did his best to brush Saffron’s hair.

    To Saffron: "The best stories, I've been told, are built upon your own experiences. Working at the Smithsonian, are there any interesting tales that spoke out to you?” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Oh yeah, there’s tons of cool stuff at the Smithsonian that I could turn into a show. I was a huge fan of the weird things you could see at the Smithsonian, and always made sure to point them out whenever I got the chance. There’s the ‘Crystal Skull’, which in addition to being the plot of an Indiana Jones movie, are actually more fascinating for the legends relating to them than what they actually are. Supposedly they were made in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and have mystical and paranormal effects, but every single one that has ever been scrutinized by scientists have been proven to actually be made some time in the mid-19th century.
    We have the suit of the ‘Bubble Boy’, the kid who had such a deficient immune system that he had to live in a plastic bubble to avoid contact with germs. NASA designed a suit for him to help him live a slightly more normal life and the family was kind enough to donate it to us.
    We’ve also got a 16th century automaton of a monk. Seriously, you should look up a video of this thing. It’s crazy that something like this was made so long ago.
    And that’s literally just scratching the surface of the thousands of objects we have on display. I’m certain there’s something cool I can remember to design a story and a show about. I only wish that they had built the Museum of Magic History years ago, rather than opening it in a couple of years.

    To Saffron: “There's a time and place for everything Saffron, and you'll just have to make do with what you have. It’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way growing up. Why not try The Little Mermaid? You can take advantage of the halving part. I’d suggest avoiding the Disney version. That way, your finale could have you burst into bubbles like the original ending. It’s so sad that people always forget the original version of all these classic fairy tales.” -Rei (Edited a bit)

    Ooh! That sounds like a great idea for an act. Except that I can’t swim… Maybe I could do something like ‘The Little Centaur’ or ‘The Little Naga’.

    To Drake and/or The Producers: “Didn't Ophelia do exactly this "challenge" for her first trick? Talk about timing…” -HeraldOfOpera

    Drake: I don’t understand what you are trying to say with this comment. Are you saying it’s convenient that this challenge would have been directly advantageous to Ophelia if she were still here? As in that case you could easily claim the same with how the first real challenge, which was to perform a classic magic trick, would have been advantageous to a veteran in the field like Holli. And I don’t think it would be smart to argue that, seeing as how Holli lost that one.
    Or are you claiming that we are making these challenges up as we go along by insinuating we are only using this challenge because Ophelia is now gone? The Producers and I worked hard to plan these challenges out before the show began. While they might have chosen to word what the purpose of the challenge is poorly, we planned out a challenge for this week to be based upon these assistants acting skills, as it should have been obvious by this point that the remaining contestants were good enough in a magic sense to be my assistant.
    Good acting skills are important for any assistant in the cases where I, or another magician, might need to disguise them as a plant in the audience for a particularly engaged trick with audience participation, or to be an icebreaker to a more questioning audience. While we could technically pick anyone, it’s typically frowned upon in the stage magic community to ask for true audience participation for the first act, or in a trick that requires more than the audience member simply standing there. This way, when the assistant comes out and can demonstrate that yes the magic is real and safe, the audience will be more likely to believe in your magic, and the tricks that actually involve the audience will be less likely to go catastrophically wrong. Hence the need for a challenge where the ultimate goal is to convey a character through the act, even if that character is yourself.

    To Jill:  “I may have asked you this before.  How do you like detachment compared with flattening?  I myself am a fan of detachment.” -James-MacCloude

    Well, now that I’ve had some time to try out detachment magic a bit, I’m pretty sure that I like it, but it doesn’t even blow a candle to flattening magic for me. With detachment magic, it’s pretty trippy to have your body in two places at once, and the magic itself feels pretty good for the briefest moment where it occurs. But with flattening magic, and shape changing magic in general, since I’ve actually gotten to experience that now too, the effect feels so much better since it encompasses your whole body, and there’s more residue of that feeling thanks to the fact it requires more to maintain that effect than simple detachment magic.
    Then, there’s also the fact that I get a little nervous with how helpless you can become from detachment magic. With flattening magic, the very first thing my friends in the Flat Pack taught me was how to reinflate myself. With detachment magic, if you lose your part, there’s not really a way to get your body part back unless you get your original part back or take someone else’s. It’s not like you can just will a part back into existence and it will it to be there.