“Rise and Shine, girls!” The voice of Howard blasted through the girls’ bedrooms. By this point, the girls sleep schedules had more or less adjusted to Howard’s early wake-ups, completely nullifying the need for him to do them at all. “Kairi and I are going to go visit my costume designer so that the two can talk about ‘my style’? Personally, I don’t see a need to change, but then again, it has been a while since I’ve had an image update…

     In either case, I will be unavailable to assist you for most of the rest of the day. If you have any requests or need of assistance, barring of course wanting to practice with me, please feel free to speak with the staff, and they will do everything in their power to help you out. I hope you all have a good day planning your performance!”

~~~

Elise’s Room

     Elise was busy lounging on her chaise lounge, her TV flipped to a recording of the Saturday night performances, a clipboard containing the notes that Penny and Jean had so graciously left her sitting on her lap. Resting on the marble tabletop in front of her were several sheets of paper, each with a list of shows, movies, and books of the last two decades that were popular. A large amount of the names were either crossed out, or had little notes about how the elements of the media could be incorporated into a trick.

     Elise was just about to rewind the recording to the start of her section, when she was interrupted by a knock on her door. Elise looked at the door quizzically, getting up and opening the door and revealing the much shorter Sable on the other end. “Yes?” Elise asked.

     “H-hello,” Sable said, looking towards the floor, her cheeks bright pink, “You’re… um… What’s your name again?”

     “Elise?” Elise said, slightly confused by the question.

     “W-would you mind if I called you El? I’m really lousy with names.”

     “Uh… Sure?” Elise seemed to be even more confused by the situation she found herself in now, “What exactly did you come here for?”

     “Oh! Yeah! You’re the one who’s a famous YouTuber, right?”

     “Yes, that’s me,” Elise was visibly frustrated with how Sable was not getting to the point.

     “So, you have a lot of experience with computers then?”

    “I mean, I guess I have about as much as the next person. The only big programs I use are to go on the internet and to record and edit videos.”

     Sable’s eyes grew larger, and she looked at Elise as she asked, “So you’d know how to send an email then?”

     Elise looked at the small girl incredulously, “Yes? Do you not know how to send an email?”

     Sable hid her face again, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment, “I mean, I do. But only through a cell phone. I promised my younger sister, Silvia, that I would send her an email to check up on her, but since I don’t have a cellphone, I was hoping to use the hotel’s business center to-“

     “Wait! This hotel has a business center!?” Elise asked, her eyes lighting up.

     “Y-yeah,” Sable said, taken aback, “They have this computer, but I’m not really sure how to-“

     Elise wasn’t even paying attention, grabbing Sable’s arm and dragging her along as she said, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll help you send your email. But first I have to check out how my show’s doing!”

~~~

The Lobby

     Sinopia was quietly relaxing in the front lobby. While she would have normally been fine hanging out in her bedroom with Sable, she had left in order to send an email to their younger sister Silver, and as such her bedroom was a bit too lonely and claustrophobic for her liking. Thankfully, the main lobby afforded her ample seating, the background noise of some insignificant news program, and the opportunity to watch the world move outside of the hotel.

     Her reverie was interrupted, as the great golden elevator doors opened, and came Annette and Rocky stepped out, the little black creature taking the form of an all black Pomeranian. Rocky was attached to a rather short, red leash, and was practically pulling Annette along as it made a beeline towards the door. Annette pulled back, as she spotted Sinopia relaxing in a recliner. “Howdy, Sinopia!”

     “Hello,” Sinopia eyed the leash suspiciously, “Are you going to take Rocky out for a walk?”

     “Yeah!” Annette said, having to pull back on the leash as Rocky again tried to make a break for the door, “While the field Howard created for Rocky is great, the truth is Rocky’s been super antsy the past couple of days. Since he did such a good job on Saturday, I thought I’d reward him with some walkies around town. Do you want to come with?”

     “But… Isn’t leaving against the rules?” Sinopia asked.

     “Hm… I don’t think so? At the very least I don’t remember any part of the contract explicitly stating that we have to stay cooped up in the hotel like a bunch of horses in a stable. Besides, Howard seems to leave all the time too, so even if it is, I imagine the punishment wouldn’t be too bad.”

     “But what about if people who watch the show spot you?”

     “Oh! I thought of that! Watch this! Rocky! Hoop!” Just like last week, Rocky quickly transformed into a hoop like shape, the leash somehow remaining tight against Rocky despite his diameter significantly shrinking. In some ways, this caused him to look like the world’s strangest lasso.

     Annette placed Rocky on the floor, flicking the leash upwards and sending Rocky flying up and over her. As he passed by, Annette’s form began to change. The resulting girl looked almost nothing like Annette, her normally tannish skin paling up to a near porcelain level of white, her normally blond hair darkening up into pitch black. Her frame was slightly smaller, and slightly wider, and the country girl outfit she had been wearing was replaced with a plain black jogging suit. “Ta-da!” She said, her voice having become a couple of octaves higher.

     “Okay… But what about Rocky?” Annette said, the creature in question already transforming back to his former mutated Pomeranian look, “I think anyone would clearly be able to notice him.”

     “I’ll just explain that I’m some stage-hand and Annette trusted me to make sure Rocky got some exercise outside of her bedroom,” Annette explained.

     “But what about-“

     “Look Sinopia!” Annette interrupted, getting frustrated with this exchange, “If you don’t want to come, it’s fine! But I’m not going to stand here all day playing the what-if game with you. So are you coming or not?”

     Sinopia looked longingly out the front door, unsure of what she wanted to do.

~~~

Dining Room

     It was around lunchtime, and while the other contestants were busy with their various plans for the day, Maya had decided it was as good a time as any to grab some lunch. She sat at a table all by her lonesome, and a menu and notepad miraculously appeared on her table. After looking through the menu, she wrote down on the n what she wanted for lunch, a turkey club sandwich with extra french fries, and just like they had appeared, the items on her table disappeared, being replaced with a simple countdown timer with ten minutes on the clock.

     Maya just sat there, looking into space, until she heard the sound of a polite cough from behind her. She turned her head, and standing there was the same bellhop that had originally handled the exchange between Sinopia and Patricia only a few days earlier. Despite the fact that Maya was sitting down, he was standing eyes-to-eye with her. He was wringing his blue bellhop hat between his light-blue, clawed hands nervously, asking through his blue beak, “Excuse me Ms. Maya?”

     “Yes?” Maya asked, staring at him with interest with her large eye, causing him to squirm a bit more.

     “Um… My name is Dudley,” He was nervously ran his hand through his messy dark blue hair, revealing more of one of his black horns, until his hair sprung back into place, obscuring everything but the tip once more, “and I just wanted to ask,” He closed his eyes, “Could I please have your autograph?”

     Maya was taken aback. “W-what?”

     “My little girl, Luna, watches the show religiously, and when she found out there was going to be a non-human contestant just like her, she made me swear that I would get her an autograph,” Dudley explained.

     “R-really?” Maya asked, still clearly in shock.

     “Oh yeah!” Dudley said, “Of course, she’s half-demon, not half-monoeye, but ever since last year its been her dream to be a magician’s assistant too. I know that I’m really not supposed to ask you contestants for anything, but it would really mean the world if you could do this for me.” Dudley looked like he was practically ready to get down on the floor and start begging on his knees.

     “Um. Okay?” Maya said.

     “Thank you so much Ms. Maya!” Dudley looked like he was on the verge of tears, as he pulled out a pen and a piece of notebook paper.

     “What should I write?” Maya asked, not really sure since she had never really written an autograph before.

     “Just put: To Luna, Never give up on your dreams. As long as you keep trying, I know that you’ll be able to do whatever you put your mind to. Sincerely, Maya.” Maya wrote down what Dudley asked her to and handed him back the piece of paper. “Thank you so much Ms. Maya! Oh, I could just hug you!” He said, a few tears actually managing to escape past his eyes. “You truly don’t know how much this will mean to my little girl!”

     “And how old is she?” Maya asked curiously.

     “She’s about twenty now, of course since she’s only half demon, that means she about developmentally a five year old,” Dudley explained, having calmed down a little, “but thankfully, that means she’ll have plenty of time to practice for when she finally turns seventy-two,” he chuckled lightly.

     Suddenly, a plate of food appeared in front of Maya with the food she had ordered. Dudley said, “Well, I won’t hold you any longer from your meal,” Dudley said, replacing his hat upon his head.

     Maya looked at the empty seats across from her, before turning back to Dudley and asked, “Hey, why don’t you sit down and talk with me for a bit longer?”

     “Oh… I couldn’t Ms. Maya,” Dudley said.

     “But why not? I’d love to hear more about Luna,” Maya smiled, “and besides I’d be rather lonely just sitting here all by my lonesome.”

    Dudley eyed the seat across from Maya with longing, before saying, “Oh no Ms. Maya. I really couldn’t, I need to be on the ready in case one of you assistants ask for my assistance.”

     “But everyone else is currently off doing their own thing alone!”

     “Well… I suppose if somebody requested my assistance to help them out with finishing an especially large task,” He emphasized the last couple words, clearly looking towards the plate of food and making some sort of nudging motion towards it.

     Maya, catching the obvious clues he was leaving, asked, “Dudley, could you please stay here and help me finish this massive lunch? I’m not sure I could finish it on my own.”

     Dudley smiled, as he pulled out the chair across from her, saying, “It would be my pleasure Ms. Maya.”

~~~

Local Dog Park

     “Oh my God! If Howard finds out what we’re doing, he would kill us,” Sinopia said, her voice a couple of pitches lower, as she watched Rocky running around the dog park, the other dogs running away from him in fear, as he thought they were playing a game of catch.

     In the end, Sinopia decided to come along with Annette, having Rocky transform her into a disguised form as well, receiving some similar inversions to her regular traits, her hair and skin darkening, while she shrank slightly. The two walked several blocks over from the hotel with absolutely no-one even questioning who these two ladies were or why they were walking

     “I’m sure Howard would be fine with it,” Annette said, keeping an eye on Rocky, less so because she was worried about him being stolen or injured, but more so so that Rocky wouldn’t accidentally eat or transform the dogs he was playing with. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Now, I don’t mean to pry, but about that first day-“

     Sinopia laughed nervously, interrupting Annette, “Yeah… I sort of don’t want to talk about it.”

     “Fair enough,” Annette said holding up her hands, “I just want you to know that if you do need someone to talk to-“

     “Don’t worry about me,” Sinopia said coldly, “I’ve got Sable. We’ve already talked it all out.”

     “Alright,” Annette said, dropping the issue and continuing to watch Rocky play around.

     The two just stood in silence, Annette occasionally instructing Rocky to quit chasing squirrels and at one point having to go over and cover up a hole Rocky had dug. Eventually, Annette asked, “So, do you have any ideas for what you want to perform?”

     “Not really,” Sinopia sighed, “Sable’s already managed to figure out what she wants to do and told me not to copy her, but other than that I’ve got no clue.”

     “Really?” Annette said, impressed that someone had already figured out what they wanted to do, “What is it?”

     Sinopia blushed, “I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone. She’s super self-conscious about her interests.”

     “I get ya.” There was silence once more. Eventually, Annette broke it again, saying “I’m thinking about five more minutes, and then we’ll go back?”

     “Yeah, sounds good,” Annette said, most of the good mood between the two soured.

~~~

Business Center

     “Okay, when you told me there was a computer, this is not what I envisioned,” Elise said, as she stared at the offending piece of technology.

     The business center was rather lackluster, primarily being composed of a single computer and chair with an attached printer against one wall, and a large row of filing cabinets against the other. The only light source in the room was the large window that took up most of the far wall, as when they had tried to flip on the light-switch, the bulb immediately popped. The room had a thick layer of dust and cobwebs on it, and Elise suspected much like Howard, the last time the computer had probably worked was more than twenty years ago.

     “But,” Elise said, “I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” She pressed the power button, and prayed to any and all Gods that the machine would turn on.

     Miraculously, the machine did, and after waiting almost ten minutes for the machine to finish properly booting up, the homepage loaded and, “Oh! What a gip!” Clearly, Howard or whoever had set up the computer had modified the accessibility of the computer, as the only applications available were several different desktop email applications, a word processor, a spreadsheet program, and a powerpoint program. “Alright, I guess the computer’s all yours,” Elise said, clicking on the email application that Sable had told her was the one she used and walking her through the process to log in and send an email.

     “T-Thank you El,” Sable said, taking the seat from Elise and beginning to type out her message to Sylvia looking at the keyboard and using one finger at a time.

     “Don’t mention it,” Elise said, walking over to the filing cabinets and examining the labels on the end, the piece of paper having degraded to the point of unreadability.

     “What did you want to use the computer for?” Sable asked, her voice having gained some confidence as she didn’t have to look at the girl.

     “Well… I’ve been doing a good job of hiding it… But the truth is, I’m actually going completely crazy without being able to go on the internet! I really thought I could go cold turkey, that the competition would be so intense that I wouldn’t feel the cravings to check out my social media accounts or watch my subscriber count, but I just can’t!” She grabbed one of the handles of the filing cabinets and gave it a pull, the drawer not budging in the slightest.

     “Well, could you email someone and have them send those statistics to you?” Sable asked, finalizing the last bits of the email she wanted to send.

     “I mean, yeah. But email is so slow and by the time I catch up I’d already be out of sync with the rest of the world! Plus… I’m trying to put more trust in my business partner to run the accounts,” Elise had moved on to the next cabinet, receiving similar results as the last couple she had checked.

     “Well, I guess not having access to the internet is sort of a blessing in disguise then,” Sable said, clicking send on the email and logging out of her account, “this way you actually have to go through with the detox.”

     “Detox? Please, I’ll have you know I have a perfectly healthy relationship with the internet… At least I would if I had access to it!” Elise practically shouted.

     “Alright, whatever you say,” a twinge of annoyance in her voice, obviously recognizing the cycle of addiction, but not wanting to pry any further.

     Elise reached the final filing cabinet, pulling on the door and the locking mechanism once again stopping her from reading their contents, “Gah! What’s even the point of keeping filing cabinets in the communal business center if nobody can open them!”

     “Well, I’m done,” Sable turned off the computer, finding the button that Elise had initially pressed to turn the machine on and pressing it again, “Thank you for helping me.”

     “Don’t mention it,” Elise said, the two stepping into the elevator and leaving the business center to collect more dust.

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

& Question Corner &

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

     To Patricia: “I'm so sorry to hear that you'll be leaving so soon! Your ideas are fascinating and revolutionary, and I feel with even just another week, you'd have proven how capable you can be as an assistant. Even getting on the show is a sign that you've got the potential for incredible presentation skills. I'm sure that you'll have no issue getting a scholarship now (if you even need one at this point), but if you ever need any advice, feel free to hit me up. Or if you need a test subject for further revisions of the "Brainwave Box", for that matter.” -@@WanderTones

     Thank you so much Penny. Getting the opportunity to be taught by one of the best assistants in the business was truly an honor.

     I’m almost entirely certain that we’ll have to include a large amount of safety restrictions if I ever wanted to truly pursue releasing my discovery to the public, giving the large potential for abuse. Although you will be one of the first to get a prototype if I decide to go that route.

     As for scholarships? I’ve already reached out to the contact Howard provided me, and will begin working on location once the last couple remnants of the Guinness Plague have been eradicated.

     To Howard: “Howard… that trick was incredible. It's hard enough to even comprehend higher dimensions, let alone design a trick to exploit them. I know there's the whole convention of not disclosing most details of magic tricks, but if you can point me to some resources that helped you understand how to magically shift someone into a non-parallel state within the fourth dimension, I would love you for that.” -@@WanderTones

     Certainly, I’ll point you towards the direct source where I learned the trick. It was an old mathematician friend of mine named Frank Conway. He was absolutely brilliant in understanding mathematics, but when it came to magic… He wasn’t exactly the best. So, because I would typically invite him to many of my afterparty’s, and it was expected that the friend of a famous magician should himself be good at magic, he designed a trick around a concept only someone as well versed in mathematics as him could truly grasp the impressiveness of, and after nearly a decade of pushing, I managed to get him to reveal the secret to me.

     Unfortunately, now that I think of it, I believe Frank died earlier this year. However, if you’re truly interested in learning the trick, I’m certain that he would prefer that others knew how to perform the trick, so that it wasn’t lost to the ages.

     To Howard: “Oh good. It's just a cliche in reality shows that the host would actually try to put contestant in traumatizing situations that is as dangerous as the Saw movies. Or verbally abuse them so hard that they may break like a certain chef while earning internet fame for the insults (Granted I heard said chef meant well). Entertainment these days can be sadistic. Hope the execs aren't making you be like that.” -@@quad2

     Please, as if the executives for this show could make me do anything. If they had their way, I’m relatively certain that they’d bring back David Angel and all of the prior contestants for a second season. Just imagine how ridiculous that would be!

     As for abusing my contestants? I would never do such… unless to teach them a very valuable lesson (Note: That was a joke, in case it wasn’t clear from my other comments)

     To Maya and Sable: “Shrunken? Not common but there was that one time where I fought a witch doctor and rescued the shrunken heads. I of coursed restored them to regular heads but their bodies are long gone. Those stitches really scarred their lips or their minds as they often kept their mouths shut, thinking they still got them stitches. There was also this other shrunken head I met but she insisted to stay in that form for tradition sake. Said shrunken head ended up with her descendant. Basically, it's a thing and it's possible but people can do so much worst things to a disembodied head. Like the classic impaling of the stake, head in a jar (surprisingly uncomfortable under circumstances), or being used for sport. The list goes on girls.” -Rei

     Maya: Oof. I definitely wouldn’t want to be in any of those situations.

     Sable: Double goes for me.

     Maya: It’s cool to hear that that one shrunken head got passed on to her descendant though. If I had my head shrunken and it was unfixable, I would want to make sure my parents kept me so that they knew I was safe.

     Sable: …I don’t think I’d trust any of my younger sisters with my shrunken head though.