“Good morning, Girls!” the voice of Howard Weiss woke the girls up bright and early, “It’s Friday! So you know what that means! You better spend the day ironing out those last few wrinkles, or risk getting eliminated tomorrow!”

~~~

Patricia’s & Sinopia, Practice Room

     “So… What do you think?” Sinopia asked Howard nervously. They had demoed off a variety of functions that Patricia’s amazing new invention could do, and were waiting for his approval.

     “Well girls… I think it’s” Howard kept his stern look, until it suddenly inverted into a wide grin, “absolutely incredible!” The girls gave each other a look of relief, “and I absolutely love your idea for presenting the product too. But!” He said holding up a finger, “What I need to know is who’s planning on being the assistant? And who’s going to be the initial subject?”

     “Well, obviously as the person who invented it, I should be the one who’s the assistant."

     Sinopia inhaled sharply, saying, “I don’t know Patricia… I was thinking that I should be the assistant, since that one’s going to be the bigger speaking role.”

     “But you wouldn’t be able to go over the intricacies and nuances of the technology that allow for it to work!”

     “That’s the point though,” Sinopia said, “We’re supposed to be doing a magic trick, not a thesis statement! If we bog it down with too much info, we’re going to lose the audience!”

     Patricia seemed annoyed at this, but after a moment of thought, she shrugged, saying, “Okay then.”

     “And also- Wait what?”

     “Look Sinopia,” Patricia sighed, “I know that if I fight you on this, you’re just gonna keep continuing fighting me to get it your way. So I’m just going to cut this exchange now to save us both the trouble. Besides, you probably would do a better job at it than me anyways.”

     “W-Well. Okay then,” Sinopia grinned, “Glad to be on the same page for once.”

     “Wonderful!” Howard cheered, clapping his hands together, “Now lets get rehearsing straight away!”

~~~

Sinopia’s Room

     After rehearsal, Sinopia returned to her room, excited that she would be performing live in front of a TV audience for the first time. She had just taken off her orange leotard, when she heard a knocking on her bedroom door. “Just give me a second!” She shouted, quickly pulling on an orange t-shirt and black shorts. She opened the door, and found a distraught looking Maya on the other end. Her singular eye filled with concern. “Hey Maya. What’s up?” Sinopia asked.

     “Have you seen Sable anywhere?” Maya asked, “She ran out of rehearsal crying yesterday and when I went to check on her yesterday she refused to let me in her room. I wanted to check if she was feeling better so we can rehearse with Howard later.”

     “Well, when I came home yesterday she was still crying, but I didn’t check on her this morning. I’ll go do that now,” She left Maya standing in her bedroom, walking through the thankfully unlocked door between their two rooms.

     The room was absolutely a mess, the bedsheets having been tossed all over the place. Sinopia went to check the dressers, and found that Sable’s clothes were all missing. Checking the closet confirmed her suspicion, that her sister’s suitcase was missing.

     Sinopia ran back into her bedroom, “I think Sable might be trying to leave the show!”

     “What!?” Maya’s eye looked like it was about to pop out of her skull.

     “Look, Sable’s has one of the worst cases of stage fright I’ve ever seen,” Sinopia was out the door, leading Maya into the golden elevator as the exited it out into the main lobby.

     “If she has stage fright, why would she enter a competition that would require her to basically perform twenty-four seven?”

     “She’s generally pretty fine with cameras,” Sinopia explained, already reaching the front desk, “It’s just when there’s a ton of people looking at her that she starts freaking out.” Sinopia slammed down on the little bell, and almost like magic Howard appeared in a puff of smoke behind her.

     He was wearing a brown robe, and had a pipe in between his lips that he was puffing away at. “What is it Sinopia?” He asked.

     “Sable’s going to try to leave the show early,” Sinopia explained.

     “Alright. And what would you like me to do about it?”

     “Well, talk her out of it obviously!” Sinopia yelled.

     “My dear, if she doesn’t wish to compete, I really cannot do anything to prevent her from doing so,” Howard said, taking another drag from his pipe, “it would be unethical to force her to perform against her will.”

     “Look, I know Sable. She might be saying right now that she doesn’t want to perform, but I know ,deep down in her heart, she really wants this! If she just sat down with you, I’m certain she would reconsider it.”

     Howard looked at the conviction in Sinopia’s eyes, sighing and saying, “Look. I would love try to convince her to stay if I could, but unfortunately the contracts that you all signed forbids me from doing so. I have a rehearsal that I must get to in a couple minutes, meaning that if she tries to ring me up to sign out, I won’t be able to do so. So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll have my hotel employees keep on the lookout for her, and the moment they spot her, they’ll contact you two. You’ll have until I’m done with rehearsal to try and convince her that what she’s trying to do is a big mistake. Is that good enough for you?”

     “No,” Sinopia whined, “…but if it’s the best you can do, we’ll take it.”

     “Alright then,” Howard said solemnly, “I wish you both the best of luck.”

~~~

Annette & Elise, Practice Room

     Howard walked into the practice room significantly more serious looking than either Annette or Elise had seen him during the entirety of the competition thus far. That was until he spotted Rocky, who was taking the form of wolf-like dog and his face immediately shifted into a frown, “I thought I told you I didn’t work with animals.”

     “Well look, Rocky is an important part of the act,” Annette said, wrapping her arms tightly around Rocky’s neck, “If he goes, then I go.”

     Howard rolled his eyes, sighing as he said “Alright then, if only to make sure I don’t potentially lose another contestant.”

     “Wait, what?” Elise asked.

     “Never you mind, Dear. Now then, how about you walk me through this planned act of yours. Do I need to know how to order your beast around for the trick?”

     “You’ll need to learn a couple of commands, but Elise and I already helped get him used to you yesterday in our own rehearsal.”

     “Really? And how did you do that?” Howard asked, his eyebrow lifting up in curiosity.

     “Rocky? Hoop!” Annette commanded. Rocky opened his mouth, it growing impossibly wide, as it seemed that the rest of his body was quickly diminishing. Soon, Annette was holding a black, fury hoop in her hands, a pair of yellow beady eyes topping the ring, and a series of jutted teeth lining the inside of the hoop.

     Annette placed the new ring form of Rocky on the ground, and Elise stood in the center, only a few inches separating her feet from the row of sharp white teeth. Annette grabbed the hoop, commanding, “Rocky! Howard!” and pulled it up Annette’s body. As it reached the top of Annette’s former head, it became apparent what sort of magic Rocky had done, as standing there now was an almost exact copy of Howard Weiss. Of course, it was obvious that this wasn’t the true Howard Weiss, as the clone seemed to carry their body slightly different from the real deal, a slight feminine touch to the swaying of their hips and chest.

     “Rocky! Return to normal!” The former Elise, current Howard clone said, perfectly mimicking the way Howard talked. Without much fanfare, Rocky’s hoop body bubbled back to his wolf-like form, barking happily. “Good boy!” the fake Howard bent down, rubbing the beast’s back.

     “So, What do ya think?” Annette grinned.

     “Alright girls, color me intrigued,” Howard said, eyeing his clone closely, trying to find an imperfection on the superficial level, “Now, let’s get rehearsing.”

~~~

Lobby

     Sable’s head peaked out of the great golden elevator, peeking around the main lobby for any sign of her sister or her partner. She had thankfully managed to avoid them earlier when Maya showed up unannounced to Sinopia’s room by disappearing herself in her closet and reappearing herself when they left. Satisfied that she didn’t spot them, she pulled her black suitcase out and made a beeline towards the front desk. Just as she was about to slam down on the bell that would send her home, she heard a voice from behind her saying, “Hey!”

     Sable turned around sheepishly, only to spot a certain dark-haired assistant sitting in one of the reclining chairs. Jean had a book in her lap and calmly explained, “Howard’s rehearsing right now. Nothing’s going to happen if you ring that.”

     “Oh r-really?” Sable stuttered, not quite sure if Jean knew her intentions, “I guess I’ll have to come back another time.”

     She grabbed her suitcase, and was about to make her way back to the elevator when Jean suddenly said, “Well, I’m sure it’s not going to be that long, why don’t you stay down here and keep me company?” Jean closed the book on her lap, placing it on the side table nearby.

     “Oh. I couldn’t I really wouldn’t want to bother you,” Sable had still yet to make eye contact with the veteran assistant.

     “I insist,” Jean said, getting up and walking her over to the recliner next to where she had been lounging in, “after all, your big performance is tomorrow. If you wanted any advice, now would be the time to ask for it,” she smiled warmly at the clearly nervous Sable. Sable seemed really uncomfortable, constantly looking around the room for any sign of a disturbance. “Are you feeling the pre-show jitters?”

     “Y-yeah a little bit,” Sable responded back.

     “I still remember my first show,” Jean said, fondly looking up into the sky as though she were having a flashback, “Penny and I had just started out as assistants, and I was absolutely scared out of my mind.”

     “What?” Sable asked, suddenly taking interest in what Jean had been saying.

     “Yeah. An old magician friend of ours assistants called in sick and he was scheduled to perform for a charity function. Since he knew we both had experience in magic, he called us in as emergency replacements. But while Penny was comfortable doing magic in front of an audience, I had never actually performed magic in public before. Heck, I hadn’t even went out transformed in public, even with something that was easily concealable.”

     “So what did you do?”

     “Well, we couldn’t just leave our friend hanging. After all, the event was for charity! So, Penny had the bright idea that if I hid my face, I’d be able to hide any nervousness I had from the crowd. So that’s what we did! We magicked off my face, and Penny’s too now that I think about it so that we’d be symmetrical, and do you know what?”

     “What?” Sable was absolutely entranced by Jean’s story now.

     “Well, all the nervousness I had been feeling simply disappeared,” Jean extended her hands outwards to emphasize her story, “I only realized later that, without a face, I was completely anonymous. I couldn’t get nervous because there was no longer a reason for me to be nervous. If they were judging me, they were judging only the small portion of myself that I allowed them to see, and not myself as a person.”

     “But what about your stage fright?” Sable asked, “Did it really just disappear?”

     “Unfortunately not,” Jean said, “I still get a little nervous when I’m performing in front of others, but that’s why what Penny and I figured out was so great! By creating a stage persona, I was able to reinvent myself however I wanted, and if I didn’t want to be afraid anymore, my persona could be brave for me.”

     “Wow… I had never thought about it like that before,” Sable said.

     “Before long, people started calling for more of the faceless assistants, and eventually we even got the chance to pitch an idea for a variety TV show!”

     “Wow!” Sable sat there just thinking for a while, before she suddenly stood up, an idea already forming in her head.

     “I think Howard’s probably done rehearsing if you want to call him,” Jean smiled.

     “I don’t think that will be necessary,” Sable said, pressing the button for the golden elevator, “I think I’ve figured out how to fix my problem.”

     “Glad I could help!” Jean said, smiling as the golden elevator doors closed, allowing her to get back to her book.

~~~

Maya & Sable, Practice Room

     Sable walked into the practice room, still visibly nervous, but with a certain pep in her step. “So,” Howard said solemnly, “I heard that you wish to leave the competition?”

     “I did,” Sable said sheepishly, “but I decided against it.”

     “Excellent to hear!” Howard smiled, “It would be a shame to throw away all the hard work everyone else has been doing this week.”

     “Are you going to be okay for tomorrow?” Maya asked, concern on her eye.

     “I will be, when we add some slight changes to the routine.” Sable explained the changes she wanted to make. They were mostly minor changes, so thankfully the group were able to adjust to the changes relatively well.

     After they were done going through the routine a couple of more times, Howard asked, “Alright girls, do you want to give this routine a test drive with a proper audience?”

     Maya looked over to Sable expectantly, and was happy to hear her say, “Alright, just let me get set up first," she prepared herself, steeling her breath as she stepped out from behind the curtain, ready to face Howard's fake audience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& Question Corner &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     To Annette: “Having Rocky "digest" you must take a lot of courage, not to mention training to ensure that you come out as you or your routine desire. Have there been times where the results of such a magical transformation were unexpected, whether intentionally left up to Rocky, or due to him misunderstanding a command?” -@@WanderTones

     Rocky has mostly been a good boy when it comes to understanding what I want him to do. When my parents and I first found him and were training him, obviously before I learned about what he could do, he really struggled with figuring out what we wanted him to do. For instance, no matter how much we told him to stay, he would want to go wherever I was going.

     We only learned about his magical abilities when we caught him swallowing a squirrel and telling him to spit it out. Instead of spitting out a squirrel, he spat out a terrified rat that seemed to not know how to walk anymore. We did some testing, and realized that as long as something was in Rocky’s mouth, it could be transformed into something else. When we were training him on how to transform something into a something else, he almost always got it wrong the first try. When he got better, I wanted to join in the fun, and since Rocky loves to transform me, we started using it as a reward to help train him with other tasks.

     The only other story I can really think of right now from back when we were training Rocky is the time that Rocky got indigestion and it threw off all of his magic. We’re still not quite sure what he ate, but for nearly a week any time we tried to transform something, it would almost always be a random transformation different from what we wanted. Thankfully, none of us had jumped in before or during, but if we had we probably would have been stuck as a sentient piece of fruit or something else bizarre.