“Good Morning, Girls!” Howard announced at his usual time, the girls having once again grown accustomed to the time when he would normally wake them after his leave of absence last week, “It’s time to head on down to the lobby to face your punishment for the day!”

~~~

Lobby

     As per usual, the girls shuffled into the lobby, but were relatively surprised to see that Natasha was standing right next to Howard, wearing a rather modest, sleek black dress. “Just in time girls!” Howard grinned, as he picked up a rather plain looking blade, “You see, my publicist informed me of the fact that a friend of his was looking for some models to take some photos for some anniversary photo shoot, and I gladly offered up the losing contestants of yesterday’s challenge to have to spend the day helping them out. So, let’s get the transformation out of the way, and the shuttle bus waiting outside will get you on your merry way.”

     Howard lined Maya and Annette up, Natasha standing next to them, and in one swift motion, cut through all of their necks. This time, everyone was able to catch their head, since Howard made it pretty clear that was what he was going to do. “Wait… Why did Natasha get her head cut off?” Maya asked, adjusting her head in her hands to a more comfortable position.

     Natasha grinned, “Well, let’s just say it’s Howard paying me back for how royally he mistreated me on Sunday.”

     Howard groaned, putting hit hand to his face as he said, “I already said I’m sorry, Natasha. If you’re really still upset about it, we can do a proper set before the contestants where I’ll cut you up into as many pieces as you wish.”

     Natasha stuck out her tongue, “I’m just teasing you Howard! Being a part of this photo shoot with these girls is more than enough.”

     “Good,” Howard straightened his jacket, “Now you all better get going. The shuttle isn’t going to wait forever.”

~~~

Photo Shoot

     The three girls, Annette, Maya, and Natasha, had made it to the photo shoot with more than enough time to spare since the studio was only on the other side of town from the hotel. Inside, they were greeted by a woman in a professional, gray business dress, a camera dangling about her neck, her hazel hair tied up in a bun with two pencils sticking out of it. She had a face with some very light wrinkles that indicated she probably smiled a lot. “Natasha!” She said, as though she was an old friend, “Long time no see!”

     “Hey Bernie!” Natasha said, hugging the photographer, “If I had known you were going to be taking the photos, I would have begged Howard a lot harder!”

     “And who might these two be?” the photographer looked over Annette and Maya with a critical eye. “Let me guess… The models that Howard was going to lend me for the day?”

     “Hey now,” Natasha said, breaking their hug to put an arm over the two contestants shoulders, “They might not look like much, but Howard definitely has the right idea in having them help out. You know ANGA is killing it in the ratings, and it’ll definitely help your project out.”

     “Alright then,” the photographer lightened her tone, “Hello girls, my name’s Bernice Woodward. The magazine I work for, NBMonthly, ran a fan competition five years ago around detached heads, and this photo shoot is to celebrate it’s anniversary. Do you think you can handle taking thirty differently themed photos today?”

     The two girls instinctively tried to shake their heads up and down, to little avail. Realizing their mistake the two gave a soft giggle, before Annette said, “Yeah. I think we can handle it.”

     “Great!” Bernice smiled, snapping her fingers, several production assistants coming out and setting up the first scene they were going to be taking photos in. “Places people! We’ve got a long day ahead of us."

~~~

Dining Room

     From the punishments, Sable, not really sure what to do with the rest of her day now that the other contestants were removed, ate breakfast alone. “I guess I’ll just go for a short dip in the pool…” Sable got up from her table to go and change.

~~~

Picture #4: Head on Pike

     “Was this really one of the things people had to do for the challenge?” Maya asked, as a production assistant attached some fake entrails to the underside of her neck, another one painting the pole red with dyed corn syrup. “It seems like it would be awfully dangerous is somebody messed it up.”

     “Well… The contest we held five years ago had a large variety of things to do, but sadly some of them were not as well received as others,” Bernice was playing around with some settings on her camera, waiting to get the go ahead to continue taking photos, “So, our magazine’s throwing in a few new ones just to spice things up.”

     “This seems a little bit… Gory for a magazine though,” Annette said, trying her best to make her body look like it was limply sit against the pole her head was on.

     “It’s a pretty niche magazine, I’m pretty sure most of what we published is already seen as gory despite the fact that most of it doesn’t have blood.” Bernice moved forwards, focusing her lens on the almost complete scene in front of her, looking like several dead amazons in a battlefield. “How you holding up Natasha?”

     The spike of Natasha’s spear was penetrated through the bottom of her neck, the tip of the spear coming out of her mouth, meaning that she could only get out a garbled, “Om O-hey”

     “Great! Now just try and look like you’re not enjoying it so much,” Bernice grinned taking some photos.

~~~

Swimming Pool

     The pool, as it turned out, was a rather boring distraction without any friends to swim around with. It almost made Sable wish that she had done what her older sister had done when she had competed and created her own friend, but she thought she was going to be spending more time with the other contestants today.

    At one point out of sheer boredom, she had split herself in half, placing her legs in one pool ring and her upper half in another, and started trying to race herself just to pass the time.

~~~

Picture #12: Head Ordering Body Around

     “So, for this challenge were heads and bodies supposed to have separate consciousnesses?” Maya asked, her head sitting down on a sofa, her body stiffly standing in a doorway holding some drinks.

     “Well, most of them were pictures, so that sort of thing wasn’t really of much importance,” Bernice explained, focusing Natasha, who had her head sitting on a purple pillow that was being carried by her body. “Natasha, slightly wider feet please, I really want to try and capture the look of motion in the photo.”

     “Can someone please scratch my nose?” Annette asked, her body several feet away from her wearing an apron and posed to look like it was taking some muffins out of it, “Or can I move my body now Bernice?”

     “Don’t worry,” Bernice walked over to Annette’s set, which was separated from the other’s by a very thin wall and scratching her nose, “We’re nearly at the half way point girls. I think we’ll probably be done by eight if we keep up this pace.”

     “Ugh!” Maya and Annette moaned together.

~~~

Sable’s Practice

     “Alright my Dear. Any luck on figuring out what you want to do for Saturday? You have my undivided attention,” Howard said, sitting down on a chair that he had conjured from the floor with his foot.

     “Well… Natasha said it might be a good idea to ask you for some help in pushing me past my comfort zone.”

     “She did now?” Howard asked, pausing slightly before saying, “but what do you really want to do?”

     “…I don’t know!” Sable said, sounding frustrated, “You know, ever since Sinopia got eliminated, I’ve been completely thrown off on what to do! You know, it feels like I’ve been given all this great advice from other people, and I genuinely appreciate it, but then when I go to try and design a trick, all of these different ideas go bouncing around, and I’m reminded of all the words of advice I’ve gotten, and my head feels like a jumbled mess!”

     “Well, here,” Howard said, forming another chair, which was on wheels so that he could slide it over to Sable, “How about you and me talk your feelings out?” Howard asked.

     “But aren’t I suppose to design the trick by myself?” Sable asked, “After all, how else am I going to make myself the focus of it?”

     “You’re clearly not in much of a state right now to know exactly what you want to do,” Howard said, “and if I can help you figure out your feelings, it is my duty as your potential magician to assist you.”

     “Alright… Where to begin?” Sable asked, getting lost in thought, “Well-“.

~~~

Picture #18: Balancing with Head

     “So, you said that most people submitted pictures?” Annette asked from her position on top of her feet. Her body doing an impressive head stand, clutching her head between her soles. Obviously, Bernice working with her first since her pose was significantly harder to maintain.

     “Shh!” Bernice ordered to get Annette start smiling again, “And yes. Some people were too shy to submit pictures of themselves, so there were also some stories written.”

     “Were any of them good?” Maya asked. She was doing a warrior pose, holding her head up with her extended arm.

     “Eh. Some of them were. This one guy thought he was being smart by limiting his word count too much, but it kind of made his story feel disjointed. People seemed to like his character though.”

     “That’s all fine and dandy, but could you take my picture before I fall off?” Natasha shouted, half in jest and half seriously. She was lifting her leg up with her arm, balancing on her head with one leg.

~~~

Picture #25: Head as Object

     “Well, from what you’re saying, it seemed like only a few people actually participated in the event,” Maya said from her position in the sky. Her head had been attached to an invisible wire, in order to make her look like her body was making a three throw with it, “so why even bother making an anniversary tribute?”

     “Nostalgia really,” Bernice said, taking some pictures of Annette, who had her head affixed to a globe’s stand, slowly spinning in order to get some good blur lines in the picture “It was one of the first pieces that really put our magazine’s brand on the map, so we thought the long time readers might appreciate it.”

     “Hey Girls, watch this!” Natasha smiled, closing her eyes, two slices of bread popping up out of two large holes in her head, resting so that the tops could be clearly seen, “Does anyone else smell burnt toast?” All three of the other girls had a pretty good laugh at this.

~~~

Sable’s Practice

     Sable and Howard had talked for well over a few hours, the two sharing some of her fears, including the potential of being ostracized from her family, her difficulties in learning people names, her stage anxiety, and her desire to still be a magician’s assistant even if she were to lose. They also had managed to workshop a few ideas on what she wanted out of her performance this week. Sable had came out of her talk with a newfound appreciation for Howard, although she made sure to keep some doubt in his sincerity until his situation with Nora had been sorted out.

     Towards the end of their talk, Sable finally brought up a point that had been bugging her all day. “Howard. Why is it that Maya’s and Ann’s punishment seems more… lenient than usual?”

     “Oh, that’s simple my dear,” Howard explained, “You see, I knew about the fact that your sister worked with Rei, and had high suspicions that she would probably design a challenge that, while not explicitly rigged in your favor, targeted the unique set of skills you and your sisters seem to have. So, when I saw the tapes basically confirmed my suspicions, I thought I would make their punishment a little more enjoyable with some valuable work experience.”

     “Wait… So-“

     “Yep,” Howard grinned, chuckling a little bit as he said, “you might say that you’re the one being punished by having to spend the day with me!”

      Sable looked like she was about to be upset, but after spending the past couple of hours with Howard, all she could really do is laugh at the little prank that Howard had pulled.

~~~

Picture 30: Mannequins

     “Okay girls! We’re almost done! I know your brains are probably mush, but you just have to pull through and smile!” Bernice said lining up the photograph. In the center of the shot, Maya’s head was perched on top of a mannequin’s body, while a mannequin replica head was on top of Annette’s shoulder. Around the edges of the frame of the photo, and in the background, a combination of mannequin parts and parts separated from Natasha’s body were being suspended by thick, white ropes (or by thin invisible wires if the rope would have blocked Maya and Annette.

     “Thank God!” Annette said, her head off to the side being carried by Maya’s body. “I thought today would never end!”

     “Quiet on set!” Bernice said, taking a few pictures and backing up, “Now give me a surprised face Maya… Yeah! That’s it!”

~~~

Nora’s Room

     Bernice’s prediction had mostly been on point, plus one hour, as the shuttle bus carrying the two contestants and Natasha reached the hotel at nine o’clock on the dot. The two girls quickly ran to the dining room, where they had a large, uneventful dinner with Natasha. While they had been fed during the photo shoot, it was mostly stuff from craft services, and did not compare at all to the quality food that the Hotel Weiss kitchen staff seemed to create.

     As per their promise to Nora, once they had their fill, Annette and Maya went to her room, where Sable was playing with Rocky, having the large beast chase after the arm she had plucked off her body (after removing anything that could get sprained or hurt, or course). The three made their way to Nora’s room, and after doing the secret knock, were quickly let in by Nora, who was hyperactive by their appearance. “Hey Girls! How was your day? Ooh! Are we taking our heads off now?” Nora reached up, grabbing her head in both hands and rotating it several times, effectively unscrewing her head from her body.

     “Ugh. Exhausting,” Annette said, flopping down on the couch, head still in her hands (while the photoshoot had ended, much like previous punishments, their heads couldn’t be put back on until the next day).

    “Who would have guessed that model work was so tough?” Maya said, equally as exhausted as she plopped down next to Annette.

     “What did you three end up doing?” Sable asked, taking the separate seat from the couch.

     “Yeah! I want to hear!” Nora said, taking the last remaining seat on the couch.

     “It was nearly twelve grueling hours of just taking head related pictures,” Annette complained.

     “Not to mention the photographer, Bernice, seemed to be real perfectionist,” Maya had closed her one eye as she recalled, “she had us stopped for nearly thirty minutes on one picture because she kept complaining about being able to spot her camera in my eye.”

     “Wow. Maybe I didn’t get such a bad deal after all,” Sable grinned, “I mostly just spent all day working with Howard.”

     “Must have been a ton of fun,” Annette said sarcastically.

     “It surprisingly was,” Sable smiled, “we talked about a lot of stuff… Although talking about Howard,” Sable looked specifically at Nora and turning serious, “Nora. You really need to talk to him about wanting to be an assistant.”

     “I told you,” Nora said, her head bouncing up and down slightly thanks to her legs, which impatiently bobbed up and down, “I’m going to talk to him later about it!”

     “No,” Sable said flatly, “You’re going to talk to him tomorrow. Or else.”

     “Or else, what?” Nora asked, calling Sable’s bluff, “If you go talk to him, he’ll know that you’ve been coming and talking to me and probably kick you off this competition thing you three are doing.”

     “He might,” Sable paused for dramatic effect, “but I can’t just sit by and watch you give up on your dream of being an assistant. Even if it gets me kicked off the show, I’m going to talk to him tomorrow!” Sable said, fists slightly clenched.

     “Okay… Fine, I’ll talk to him on Monday,” Nora said, grinning slightly.

    “When I might not be here to give my two cents? Oh no. You’re doing it tomorrow, or I’m doing it tomorrow,” Sable said resolutely.

    Just as soon as Nora was about to return with her own retort, the secret knock suddenly hit against the door, the three contestants not having enough time to react due to a mixture of exhaustion and the short of amount of time he completed the knock in. Dudley walked in, his normal bellhop garb replaced with a plain blue t-shirt and blue sweatpants, “Hey Nora! That Drake Bordignon fellow I was telling you about yesterday asked me to do all the staff laundry again today, but turns out there wasn’t that much to it, so I thought we could start that Lich movie, Red Velvet. I heard it’s supposed to be some of his best woooork…” Dudley stretched out the last word, as he suddenly realized that the three contestants that were supposed to be in their bedrooms were in on his secret.

     Sable, instinctively, set a wave of magic his way, hoping to remove his legs before he had the chance to run away, but the magic simply seemed to pass through him, accomplishing nothing. Annette, meanwhile had jumped up and over the couch, carrying her head like a football to intercept his possible escape plan. In the same moment that was going on, Maya was shouting, “He’s fully demon! Magic’s not going to work on him.”

     What followed this moment was Annette successfully tackling Dudley to the ground pinning him in a similar manner to how she would one of the small beasts on her ranch so that even if he struggled, he wouldn’t have much give. “Hi Dudley,” Annette grinned, “Or should I call you D?”

     “Please! Don’t hurt him!” Nora said, getting up and leaving her head on the couch, and trying to pull Annette off of him.

     “I’m not going to hurt him!” Annette said, not budging much due to Nora’s ineffective attempts, “just as long as he promises that he won’t go squealing to Howard before we get the chance to catch him by surprise.”

     “Alright! Alright! I promise won’t tell him anything about you all talking to Nora! Please just get off me!” Dudley said.

     “And how do I know that you’re not lying?” Annette said, “After all, you lied to Maya about Nora!”

     “It’s because a demon’s word binds him,” Maya said, refusing to turn her head and look at Dudley, “He told me about it at lunch. You can trust him to not tell Howard.”

     Annette hesitated slightly, before getting off of Dudley. Dudley stood up, patting off some of the dust that had gotten onto his pants from the floor, saying, “Also. I would just like it to be known I’ve never lied to Maya once.”

     “Oh really!” Maya said, aggressively turning to look at Dudley with her one eye, “Then what about that time you brought in Nora’s plates and claimed that they were Kiari’s?”

    “Some of them were Kairi’s and she did throw a party!” Dudley said, “I always make sure to mix in other guests plates with Nora’s so that I don’t accidentally reveal her!”

    “Or how you told me nobody’s ever spotted Nora before?” Maya said, her fury undeterred, “Nora’s told us about how she likes to prank people by making them think there’s a ghost!”

    “I’ve never heard a story of Nora sinking through the floor!” Dudley defended himself, “She usually goes for walls or ceilings! You clearly caught her off guard!”

    “Is this floor even under construction? I hardly see any danger around here!” Maya gestured around the room.

     “It is under construction! There’s blueprints for an expansion in Howard’s office! And! Did you see all of the broken props in the back room? Those things are practically magic time bombs! I’ve been telling Howard to get rid of them for years!”

     “And then you claimed that if there was someone sneaking about, they would have to be the ‘best witch of all time’!” Maya was tearing up a little, tears starting to trickle out slightly from both ends of her eye.

    “And I fully stand by that statement!” Dudley was similarly crying now. Catching Maya off guard slightly, “Were they stretches of the truth? Sure! But I will not have anyone claim that Ms. Nora will not grow up to be the best witch of all time! She’s going to be a world class assistant! Maybe even a magician if she tries hard enough!” Dudley was openly weeping now, “And I will do whatever I need to do in order to help her achieve her dream!”

    The girls stood in the room, Dudley openly weeping, as Nora did her best to comfort him. Nora gave the three girls the stink eye, saying, “I think it’d be for the best if you three left.”

     Sable and Annette looked nervously at Maya, who said, “Fine with me!” Before beginning to cry herself, running out of the room clutching her head to her chest so that her weeping was muffled. Annette muttered some apologies for getting rough with Dudley, before following after her, since Maya couldn’t exactly see with her head in against her chest like that.

     Sable stayed back for a bit longer, looking away from Nora as she said, “I’m telling Howard tomorrow at seven. You’re free to come with, or to stay up here while I do it and claim that I’m just lying, basically guaranteeing that I get kicked off. I just want you to know I’m only doing this because I don’t want to see your family fall apart like mine briefly did.” And with those last words, Sable left, leaving Nora to try and cheer up her friend.

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

& Question Corner &

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

     To Everyone: “Thanks for inviting me here to shamelessly promote the place! All of the cute heads had lots of fun with you girls here and I welcome you all back anytime!” -Rei

     Sable: Thanks Rei! It was great to finally meet you! Also, thank you so much for helping me to see Ron again!

     Maya: I might just have to. Do you have any special programs regarding nonhuman heads?

    Annette: No problem Rei! Tell the heads that were rooting for me that I’m going to give it my all!

     Drake: As the spokesperson for ANGA, I’d like to extend our gratitude on the behalf of the entire ANGA crew for being a wonderful audience member, and an immaculate hostess. Despite all my fussing, you seemed to have everything really in order, and did an excellent job in setting up the challenge. We wish you the best of luck in the rest of your head selling adventures.

    To Drake: “Sorry about that head pop, kind of gotten away with it. There is a policy in shop to never detach anyone who never detach their heads in shop before. I already paid the fine and a check is coming to you soon after our meeting.” -Rei

    You don’t have to worry about that Rei. Howard says that he’s handling the charge. He says that if he were in the same situation, he probably would have lost his cool too and wanted to knock me down a few pegs.

    To Sable: “It is a shame that I cannot join you in your competition. I was actually hoping to be under your care. For all of years in learning the mystic arts, I never had an apprentice. The only compromise I can do now and support you in these "comments" as Lady Rei say. She is typing everything I want to say. I still await the day that you will take me.” -Isilynor

    Don’t worry Isilynor (Although… your name’s a little long, which do you prefer Izzy or Lyn?) When that day comes, you’ll be brought into a big loving family. I’m sure all of my sisters will love to be trained in magic by you!

    To Annette and Maya: “You two have done well today and handle the situation better than most. In fact, better than when I first lost my head. To make this fair, I will support you two as well in the background. However, Sable is my true apprentice regardless of her defeat as we are bond. Though Lady Rei told me to have restraint for all three of you due to me being a "mama wolf". I am clearly not a wolf.” -Isilynor

    Maya: How nice! Thank you for offering your assistance Isilynor!

     Annette: Thanks Isilynor! And I think that Rei was just using an expression. You should take it as a compliment though! ‘mama wolves’ are often thought to be protective of their children. It just means that Rei’s afraid you might try too hard to protect us and help us grow stronger and hurt yourself in the process.

    Maya: Yeah! Don’t strain yourself! Annette and I have been quickly getting better. We’ll be sure to make you as proud as I’m sure Sable already has!