“Good morning, Girls!” The voice of Howard Weiss woke the girls up at his usual time for this week’s midweek challenge, “Drake is waiting for you all downstairs. I wish you three the best of luck in your competition today!”
~~~
One Suspiciously Short Bus Ride Through The Desert Later
The girls felt like they had just reached the outer limits of the series when Drake had stopped the bus and was ushering them outside into the hot Nevada heat. They were standing in front of what looked like two adjacent apartment buildings.
The girls had been standing there for almost five minutes, awkwardly passing the time, when Annette finally asked, “Hey Drake. What are we waiting for?”
“Just give it a little bit more time,” Drake said, looking at his own watch. After another five agonizing minutes, the girls watched in amazement as the two apartments buildings seemed to slowly separate, the space in between them turning the dirt into brick before their eyes. The path in front of them kept expanding backwards, before suddenly taking a harsh left turn, seeming to eat into the apartment building’s foundation.
The girls looked at each other in excitement, before walking down the path at a brisk pace, Drake hanging back a bit to shake his head, saying, “You’d almost think they’ve never seen a magic shop before.”
The pathway was rather short, almost ending immediately after the corner the girls had rounded. Standing in front of them was what one would expect from a magic transporting shop that seemed to bend the very rules of time and space in order to exist. The outside of the building was very ramshackled together, with a variety of different colored woods, as though it had experienced a large amount of structural damage that had been fixed amateurishly. Above the doorway, a neon sign with the words ‘Rei’s Magical Head Shop’ was lit up in bright green, a little neon drawing of her face right next to it, with some rudimentary animation that made it look like she was winking.
The three girls looked on in excitement, with Sable being the most anxious of the three. Drake walked up to the large, green door that had both a ‘Help Wanted, Apply Within’ sign and a sign indicating that they were ‘Closed for Filming’, and knocked three times.
Within moments, the door peeked open a bit, a single eye peeked out looking Drake up and down, a nervous voice asking, “is Howard with you?”
Drake sighed, “No Rei. Per your instructions, Howard’s being a good boy and staying at home for this challenge.”
“Great!” The voice said, gaining much more confidence as she closed the door again, the sound of locks being undone could be heard as she complained “That man really gives me the creeps! I can’t believe that Davy thought he would be an appropriate replacement.”
The door opened up, and standing confidently in the doorway was a woman with long black hair and wearing a black shirt advertising her store and its location in large white letterings and jeans. “Come on in girls! Welcome to my Head Shop!”
~~~
Rei’s Head Shop
Just like the outside, it was rather clear that the inside of the stores had some sort of spell on it that caused it to be significantly larger than the outside of the building would have lead you to believe. From the front door, the room the girls found themselves in seemed to be about supermarket size, with a large variety of long aisles, each helpfully numbered so as to be able to pick out exactly which head you wanted. The aisles ranged from mundane things such as ‘1-Blondes, 2-Brunettes, 3-Gingers, 4-African Americans, 5-Asians, etc.” But got weirder the higher the numbers went, such as ’10-non-humans, 11-mechanical heads, 12-toy heads’ and so on. Near the front of the store, two check out lines stood, indicating that despite the relatively large size of the store, there were not as many staff members as were most likely needed to tend to a store of its size. The other strange thing that was immediately apparent, was the fact that looking into the aisles, all of the heads that were available were clearly female.
Rei grinned as she turned towards the contestants, cheerfully saying, “Hello girls! I’m Rei, but I’m sure you already know of me since I’ve talked to a lot of you. Now, I bet you all are wondering why we’re doing your challenge here today,”
“Besides the fact you paid the advertising costs to show off your store?” Drake muttered under his breath.
Rei didn’t miss a beat, lightly tapping Drake on the side of the head, causing it to fall off and for him to start screaming as it hit the floor as she continued, “It’s because I’m such a massive fan of the show, that the ANGA team let me create and host a challenge of my own! Today’s challenge is going to test your sense of balance and dexterity… But before we get into that, I have a little present for a certain someone,” Rei grinned, shouting out, “Hey! She’s here!”
From down one of the aisles, the sound of running could be heard, and the next thing she knew, Sable was being tackled to the floor by a large, yellow blur. When the dust had settled, it was clear that this yellow shape had actually been Saffron, a former contestant from the first season of ANGA and Sable’s sister. She was wearing a yellow shirt that matched Rei’s own, with the details of the shop in black, and a pair of jeans.
Saffron, who was significantly larger than Sable, helped her stand up, hugging her tightly, some tears welling up in her eyes as she said, “Oh my God! Sable! It’s so good to see you!”
“R-Ron?” Sable asked, a little forced due to being stunned by the fact that her sister had apparently been here the whole time and that she was slowly losing oxygen from this bear hug, “What are you doing here? I thought you only worked here on Saturdays?”
“Please!” Saffron said, still hugging her sister with entirely too much force, “When Rei told me that ANGA was going to be filming here, I had Greg cancel a gig specifically so that I could come say hi! If only Sinopia didn’t get kicked off, this could have been a real family reunion!” Saffron finally broke the hug, allowing Sable to get some much needed oxygen.
“Yeah, Sin’s really missed you. Oh! How caught up are you by the way?” Sable asked, “Do you know what Howard gave her?”
“Of course I do! Who do you think Howard sent her to after she got off?” Saffron grinned, “Silvia’s still hasn’t gotten back to me about Sinopia’s plans, but from what I heard Dad’s been real on edge since losing you two.”
“Oh my God! Silvia! I completely forgot to check if she ever got back to me!” Sable freaked out a little.
“Don’t worry Sable. She’s doing just fine. You were right to leave her in charge,” Saffron smiled, “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t even recognize here anymore with how grown up she’s became in just a few short weeks. You know... I could probably say the same about you too,” Sable blushed at these kind words.
“*Ahem*” Drake fake coughed, having managed to successfully reattach his head, “As lovely as this family reunion is... We are on a bit of a tight schedule,” Drake pointed to his watch for emphasis, “So how about we save the fun catching up for after you all compete in this challenge?”
“Oh Drake,” Saffron smiled, “I see you’re as fun loving as ever.”
“Anyways,” Drake said, not even paying attention to Saffron’s sarcastic comment, “Why don’t you tell the girls what their challenge is Rei?”
“Sure thing Drake!” Rei smiled, rolling out three small tables on wheels and lining them up in a row, “Your challenge is rather simple. Set up around the shop are seven tables, each set up with three heads with similar characteristics. Your job is to navigate the store and bring them all back here, and then build the largest head tower you can make in ten minutes!” Rei grinned at the ingenuity of her challenge.
“Of course, that sounds a little easy, so…” Rei snapped her fingers, and all of sudden, all three contestants necks disappeared, their heads rolling off their bodies, Sable being the only one to have the foresight to recognize the magic and catch her head effortlessly in her arms before it hit the floor, “In order to make things interesting, not only does your head have to be part of the base of your tower!” Rei patted the three tables, revealing that each one had a little name plate attached to it, along with a cute little mock price value, Annette’s being listed as $100, Maya’s as $500, and Sable’s as ‘Family - Not For Sale’.
~~~
Challenge 4: Heads Up
“Alright girls!” Rei said, Saffron standing by, as the three girls’ bodies made their way to the starting line. Their heads were sitting on their respective table. “On your mark… Get set…”
“Go!” Saffron shouted, grinning from ear to ear as the girls bodies blindly ran forward into the aisle in front of them.
The entire building became a cacophony of noise, as all of the heads that had been sitting quietly in their aisles were shouting out various things. Some were shouting out words of encouragement, both at a specific person and to all of the contestants. Others were attempting to be more helpful by shouting out directions, although with the hundreds of voices, there were definitely a large amount of contradictory directions, including a few cheeky heads who were telling them to go up or down.
Annette and Maya looked on in shock, as within the first minute, Sable had already managed to find one of the head stations and bring back an African American head. “How did you find that so fast? I have no clue where my body is!” Maya asked incredulously.
“Astral Projection,” Sable said, her eyes still closed as she maneuvered her body to the next aisle she could spot a table in.
“What!?” Annette said, “Why do you know how to astrally project yourself from your body?”
“Trust me… With the amount of times heads get stolen in my family, it’s an absolutely necessary skill,” Sable grinned, eyes still closed as her body grabbed on to another head, this time an elderly female head with graying hair and wrinkles.
At the half way point, Sable had managed to gather all but two of the heads that she needed to start building. Annette had steadily been moving forwards too, managing to grab two heads, thanks in large part to some of the heads who were fans of her, and working together in order to shout together to direct her body. Maya was really struggling with the task, managing to find one of the tables, but now unsure of how to get her body back to her table.
“This is so unfair!” Maya whined, still struggling to control her body, “Why do our heads even have to be on the table while we’re finding the heads?!”
“I never said that,” Rei said, looking confused.
“What!?”
“I just said it had to be the base of your tower. You’re free to carry it around with your while you’re looking for the head.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that before we started!” Annette asked, her body coming back with a third head, picking up her own so that she could start hunting for the other heads.
“I assumed you all knew how to astral project like Sable and were choosing to make it harder,” Rei shrugged.
“Well… It’s not like that’s going to help me anyways!” Maya said, her body still struggling to find its way back to the front of the store.
At seven minutes in, Sable had collected all of the head varieties, which were a blond, a redhead, an asian, an african american, an elderly woman, a head that had gills but sill had mostly human features, and a head that looked like it wouldn’t be out of place on a wind-up robot toy. Sable set her heads down in a line, trying to figure out the best order to place her heads in to get a large tower.
Annette had made significant progress now that she was able to bring her head around. To save time, she had transformed one of her hands into a see-through net, and was grabbing all the heads she had left in a single run, rather than returning to the table after each head. Along the way, she finally got a good view at some of the aisles, and as she suspected they were exactly what she imagined a head shop would look like. Shelves each with heads displayed on them, similar looking heads being grouped together in the vaguer categories, and underneath each one a name and a price tag. The prices were rather interesting, as there were some that seemed reasonable for what one would expect to buy a head, such as 100$, or 200$, some that were outrageously expensive (which, she imagined, might have been due to either being a celebrity’s head, or a very close look-a-like), and some that went as low as a single cent! All of them right next to each other on the same shelves! Some of the heads didn’t even have price tags, either listed as being ‘On Display’ or ‘Looking for a Good Home’ or ‘Probationary Trading Period’.
Maya was really struggling with this challenge, but thankfully as her body was running around, she managed to get it into the aisle in front of where their heads were sitting, and after some coordination finally managed to put the single head she had collected (ironically enough, a fellow Monoeye’s head) and picked up her own, and began running back into the aisles. Thankfully she had spotted Annette, who was looking for the last head she had to pick up, and had thus adopted Annette’s strategy as her own, transforming her hand into a net.
It was the last minute of the challenge, and Annette and Sable were frantically working on their vastly different approaches to making a head tower. Annette had structurally set up her head along the base of her tower, using four heads to form a base, which she then put another head into the pocket made by them and started stacking from there. Sable had a much riskier approach, forming a single tower with her head as the base. Since none of the heads they were using for the competition had necks, she alternated the direction the heads were facing so that the jawlines would match up with the curvature of the heads.
Maya had finally made it back with thirty seconds to spare, desperately upending her bag hand, which quickly turned back to normal, and trying to get a tower of at least some height. When time reached ten seconds, all of the heads started chanting down in unison (except for the heads that were being part of the towers, from fear of accidentally toppling over their competitor’s work) ‘Ten! Nine! Eight!”
Annette looked over to Maya, having managed to get all of her heads into a tower of approximately five high thanks to her set up. Maya had managed to make a tower of three, but had accidentally collapsed it, and was panicking trying to get it up again, not bothering to follow the same reversing direction strategies of her two competitors. “Seven! Six! Five! Four!”
Annette looked over to Sable, and was in shock. The girl had managed to make her tower seven high without the use of supports, the only head not being used as part of the tower being the cube robot one she had collected. Sable was standing with her hands close by in case the tower started swaying. “Three! Two! One! Woohoo!” The heads cheered.
The girls stepped away from their tower creations, all three managing to stay up without assistance. “Well girls,” Drake smiled, “I think we have our winner! It’s-“
“It’s Sable!” Saffron cheered, interrupting Drake and tackling her sister’s body with a hug yet again. The other heads in the store started chanting Sable’s name.
“Yeah… Right,” Drake said, dejected that his thunder was being stolen yet again. Saffron helped Sable’s body up, and Rei came over, jumping up and down in satisfaction with the sisters at her win. Annette and Maya reattached their head, watching the scene unfurl. Drake continued robotically, most of his enthusiasm stolen from how much his favorite part of the show had been stolen from him, “So Rei… Why don’t you tell-“
“Sable!” Rei cheered, interrupting Drake’s unprofessional passover, “For winning this competition! I’m going to give you a very special head.”
“It’s mine!” Saffron said, popping off her head and holding it out for Sable to grab.
“R-really Ron?” Sable asked, reaching out for it.
“No!” Saffron stuck out her tongue, tucking her head under arm, “I need this for shows, silly.”
During Saffron’s interruption, Rei had sneaked away to one of the cash registers where she had stored the head she was going to give, “This head,” She said, handing the head over to Sable, “Is an ancient elf magician. She helped write some of the original spell books in pre-humanity. She lost her head in a witches dual, and it was sent forward in time to our time period. When I was asking around for heads to help train an upcoming assistant, she was one of the first ones to offer herself up. I’m certain she’ll have a great home with you.”
The head had long golden hair and elven ears, purple eyes, and a beautiful smile. She said, “Hello, I am Isilynor. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Hey now!” Drake said, “You can’t give that to her Rei! You know the rules, it’s fine to give gifts to the winner, but we’re not giving out gifts that might given an advantage in the competition.”
“I know that Drake,” Rei stuck out her tongue at him, “I’m saying she can come and pick it up when the competition is over!”
“Alright…” Drake said, squinting his eyes “but I’m just warning you, if you try anything funny, Howard can be here in an instant.”
“No!” Rei said, “I swear! I’ll keep it here! Just don’t bring Howard over here!” The girls all laughed at this exchange.
“Good,” Drake adjusted his shirt, looking towards the camera, “And as for you people at home! Make sure you vote on what head-related punishment you want to see the losing contestants have to deal with tomorrow! Goodnight Everybody!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
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To Maya & Annette: “How do you feel now that you've learned just how popular and influential you are just being contestants on ANGA?” -@@WanderTones
Maya: It’s a little insane! I mean, a part of me knew that if I made it on the show, there were going to be a ton of people talking about the potential of introducing hemi- and nonhumans to magic acts, but actually seeing those sort of discussions out in public blew my mind!
Annette: I have to agree with Maya. It’s actually a little scary too. I mean, I’d have the occasional person come up to me back home because I was relatively famous on the beast tamers circuits, but this sort of fame is clearly a much wider reach. Like, I’m pretty sure if we had bothered to stick around at that cafe, we would have been absolutely swamped with people trying to ask us questions or get autographs, or take photos.
Maya: True! If we’re going to go out again, you might need to figure out a better disguise for Rocky, because I don’t think the fans are going to be fooled by an intern having to walk him twice.
Annette: Oh gosh! I didn’t even think about how our fame might affect Rocky! If the paparazzi actually tried to get photos of him, he might accidentally eat one of them! Oh boy… I might have to start training him to be around annoying cameras, which just getting him to be good around normal cameras was a massive task.
To Nora: “How do you manage to get by on your own (relatively speaking, I know you still have Howard and Dudley to talk to), cut off from the outside world? Even being stuck inside for a couple of months made me a little stir crazy, and I had a girlfriend, magic, and the opportunity to take walks and go shopping out in the open during that time.” -@@WanderTones
Drake: Hello there! Just interrupting to say that I’m going to be hiding any questions to Nora from Howard in the meantime. Don’t want Nora to get in trouble for speaking her mind after all. And don’t worry, we made sure to get her permission first, after all despite how much Howard babies her, she is older than eighteen.
Nora: Hello! So I just talk into this? *mumbling* Okay! Got it! Who’s this from? Penny? Hello Penny!
So, I got by mainly because I have an overactive imagination, and, as you mentioned, both D and Dad to come by frequently. As a kid, I used to be able to play for hours just with the toys Dad would bring me, making up fun little stories and lives for all the characters, usually just blatantly stealing from TV shows or Movies that I saw. I’d even set up little magic shows for them, but Dad didn’t like that very much, so I really only ever did that when he wasn’t around.
When I grew older, I’d start filling my boredom out by messing around with people in the hotel. Dad and I had really set into a routine, so I always knew exactly when I had to be back in my room, and D was nice enough that even when he would catch me, the worst he would do is yell at me himself. I used to do things like mess up or clean up their bedrooms, look at the stuff in people’s briefcases, play on their video game consoles (I would take out their memory cards first though, I’m not a monster after all), if I was feeling really daring I’d do what I did with Annette, Maya, Sable, and those other two girls I saw and try to get them to think that they were seeing a ghost. You know, standard prank stuff.
I think my proudest achievement on the prank front was when I turned a guest’s room entirely upside down before they finished checking in. The guy was clearly a greenhorn, or at the very least not that bright, because he thought that was just the way the rooms were supposed to look in a magic hotel, so he just spent his whole vacation having to levitate himself into bed and tucking the sheets super tight! It was hilarious!