Saffron walked into the dining room early in the morning, and was rather shocked to find that both Leela and Holli were up just as early. The two of them were sitting across from each other, enjoying some tea out some fancy teacups, a white teapot with blue leaf accents sitting nearby. She knew that she was going to have to talk to them about yesterday, but was hoping to push it off to closer to actual rehearsal. Taking a deep breath, Saffron approached the two, saying, “Hey girls. About yesterday…“
She waited for the other girls to hopefully jump in and giver her a way out, but when they didn’t she continued, “So, I just wanted to apologize for yesterday, some hurtful things were said…” again, she waited, hoping with all of her being that she wouldn’t have to have this talk, but it looks like there was no way of avoiding it.
“Look! I’m sorry! Okay!” Saffron huffed, “It’s just that- I’m so close to my dreams, and I really don’t want to mess this up. I don’t know if it was put in to an episode, but Jill and I had a similar conversation to this. I’ve never really had a lot of responsibilities in my family, and when they found out I wanted to be a magician’s assistant, they just saw it as another way to avoid taking any responsibility in my life. So I moved out. I accepted a job I didn’t want to take that my sister vouched for me. I checked off all the ‘responsible adult’ checkboxes! And now, I finally get the shot to prove them all wrong, that being a magician’s assistant is more than just being another prop for a magician to pull out for their tricks, and I’m freaking out because if I don’t do well, then what does that say about me? What does that say about all of us? Both of you are fantastic assistants, and I know you’re going to do your best to help me out, but I don’t want you to just accept every idea I have blindly. Some of them are going to be lousy, and I’ll do my best going forwards to try and reign them in and make a decision myself, but if I go overboard I really need you to stop me-”
“Saffron,” Holli said, turning around to look at her, “you can stop now.”
“We accept your apology,” Leela said, holding up a finger before Saffron could cheer, “On one condition.”
“Okay… What is it?”
“You have to decide. Right here, right now, what you want to do tomorrow. And no changing a trick to something else unless we all agree on it,” Leela said.
Saffron’s face switched to joy, as she said, “Oh trust me. I know exactly what we can do for tomorrow.”
~~~
Jill’s Practice
“Okay Jill,” Ophelia said about halfway through their rehearsal, the alarm on her phone going off. She had moved her favorite, animated chair into the practice room and was reading a spell book in foreign text while Jill worked with Cammie. “Don’t take any more of the potion, or else David might have to disqualify you. Did you bring all of the extra doses like I asked?”
“Yeah,” Jill said, focusing intently on not accidentally messing up the effect she wanted on Cammie, “They’re in my backpack.”
‘Great,” Ophelia went over to Jill’s backpack, rifling through and finding a few extra small vials of her magic enhancer.
“Oh drat,” Jill said behind her. Turning around, Jill saw that Cammie was gone. In her place, Jill’s backpack was now sitting on the floor.
“I warned you about being careful with that potion,” Ophelia laughed Jill laughed along too, quickly returning Cammie back to normal.
~~~
Saffron’s Practice
“That was perfect Holli!” Saffron said, reaching down and plucking her head off of the floor.
“Yeah, but I think we could do a bit more with the presentation. Do you think I should act more frightened like this is the first time we’ve done this, or more like we’ve done this before and I know what the outcome’s going to be?”
“Hm… I think the first one will be better for the overall idea of the act, but it would be an interesting switch if I acted completely the opposite of how David and I acted when i was the assistant… Nah. Let’s go with the first one.”
“Alright.”
“Hey Safrron?” she turned, seeing Leela trying on the outfit she wanted her to wear. It had a disgusting amount of glitter and sequins on it. “I think this outfit’s a bit too over the top for the feel we’re going for.”
“But I love glitter and sequins!” Saffron whined.
“Yeah. But you’re the one who said you wanted to focus on the magic itself. If my outfit’s too distracting, the focus is going to shift onto what I’m wearing, rather than the trick.”
“Alright. Fine. We can cut it. Why don’t you go through some costume ideas, pick your favorite three and we can figure it out from there.”
“Great idea,” Leela said, pulling up the quick change curtain she had used to switch into her current outfit and began cycling through various outfits.
~~~
David, Amanda, & Isabella
The sound of Isabella crying awoke David and Amanda up from their rest. “Dear, I think it’s your turn,” David said, his voice muffled by his pillow. Isabella had been extremely crabby over the past 48 hours, sporadically waking up and demanding attention from her parents for the various needs of a baby. They probably had a collective ten hours of sleep between them.
“Mmmm. I don’t wanna,” Amanda whined, just as, if not more exhausted than David.
“Dear, I got the last two, you promised,” David shifted slightly, trying to get in a better position.
“I’m only getting up if you do,” Amanda complained, shifting around as well, “don’t you have a show or something you can do?”
“But I don’t wanna” David whined back.
“Come on, David. You didn’t help them at all yesterday like you said you would.”
“I said they could come to me for help.”
“David-“
David cut her off before she could even begin her rant. He stood up, pulling on pants and saying, “Fine! Fine! I’m getting up. Go help Isabella!” David continued getting dressed, as Amanda slinked out of bed, making her way to Isabella. David gave her a kiss on her cheek for good luck, before leaving himself to go to his last two contestants final rehearsals.
~~~
David & Team Saffron
“Hello girls,” David yawned.
“David!” Saffron yelped, turning around to find him looking the most disheveled he’s appeared all competition. “What are you doing here?’
“Well. Seeing as how this is the final practice day before the competition. I thought I’d at least pop my head in and make sure everything’s going okay,” David yawned again, “and clearly by the looks of things, everything has been going well?”
“Oh yeah,” Saffron said, “we hit a rough patch for a bit, but we’ve worked it out.”
“Really?” David looked to Holli and Leela, wanting confirmation.
“Yep!” Holli smiled, Leela shaking her head in agreement.
“In that case, how about a run-through? I could give you some comments before the big night.”
“Well… That’d be nice, David, but we really want the show to be our own. And besides, you look like you could really use a nap. Why don’t you just go back to bed?”
“Oh… Are you sure girls? You’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot by not getting the advice of an expert.”
“Yeah, but you’ve always told me to take pride in my work, and I really don’t need to be second guessing my decisions when we’re so close to the show date.” “Alright then. If that’s your decision Saffron, I’ll honor it,” David said, “Best of luck tomorrow then. Break a leg,” David said, leaving the girls to continue practicing heading off to…
~~~
David & Team Jill
“What do you mean you don’t want me to watch a run through?” David asked.
“David, we’ve got it under control,” Jill said, “you can trust us.”
“Yes, but you’ve never been a magician before-“
“Yeah, that’s why Cammie has been helping me out. She’s taught me all about the delivery stuff I need to know.”
“That may be but what about-“
“And Ophelia’s been helping me out in how to work transitions and stuff so that the audience is being bored between tricks.”
“Okay but what about-“
“And besides, I’ve been doing just fine despite my inexperience throughout this entire competition. I’m sure that what mistakes we may have will be seen as pleasantly amateurish.”
“But-“
“David! Go get some sleep!” Jill ordered, tired of his backtalk. “We’ve got this. Okay?”
David looked at her in shock a bit, before shrugging, making his way back to his bedroom.
~~~
David, Amanda, & Isabella
“So what did they say?” Amanda asked, not even bothering to open her eyes.
“Shockingly, none of them wanted my help,” David said, lying back down, suddenly filled with an energy and excitement he hadn’t really felt since he first started out as a magician.
“Really? Not even just seeing a run-through?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh. They must have had a really good teacher then,” Amanda lifted her head up, giving David a kiss on the cheek. Isabella started acting up once again, “It’s your turn,” Amanda said, not even missing a beat as she flopped back down onto her pillow.
David stood up this time, fully awake despite his body’s physical exhaustion. He could not wait for tomorrow night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Saffron: “Hey Saffron, if you feel as if something is wrong, it's best to be open about it and take about it with others. Just holding it in will only cause you to make things worse. I would know as I dealt with similar people.” -quad2
Yeah. I know that. It was mostly just stress and my nervousness about tomorrow. I’ve already made up with Leela and Holli, so you don't have to worry about little ol' me.
To Jill: “You okay there? Also kind of surprised that Ophelia had a 180 in her personality.” -quad2
I’m fine. Although I was so happy when David finally freed us. I’m really just not much of a fan of being so powerless like that. Thankfully, Cammie and Ophelia are both my friends, so they didn’t tease me too much, but I can tell right now I don’t ever want to do that again. Or if I do, only one of the side girls.
I wouldn’t really call Ophelia’s change in personality being a complete 180. She’s definitely more friendly than before, at least with me and Cammie, but she’s still a rather quiet girl, unless you get her started on the Ancient Magicks, then she’ll never stop talking.
Also, I’m really glad her personality has softened, because I’m certain I would never have been able to pull off the tricks and overall attitude that she and David managed to do.
To Jill (and by extension, Cammie and Ophelia): “What are your plans for working out the issues in co-ordination, with you three stuck in playing one role at a time? A mannequin can fill the void of performing on a subject, but understanding cues and stage presence can be a difficult thing to do “single”-handedly.” -FlexibleAnatomy
Jill: Well, what we worked on today was mostly how I should hold myself differently than when I’m acting as an assistant. Yesterday was extremely informative for me to have them just run through how to focus on an effect and how to use props to do push your vision onto others.
Cammie: Yep. Plus, I have plenty of experience on both sides of the magic, so I made sure to set the ground work for how we could potentially go about timing stuff.
Ophelia: And, with a bit of adjustment to the mannequin’s body to avoid the sort of stuff that Saffron warned Jill about, I could use her spell to animate the mannequin so that we had an actually responsive body to act with, which greatly helps in terms of setting timing, as we could tell it what to do and it would follow them relatively well.