“Good morning, Girls!” Howard’s voice echoed throughout Annette’s Room, where once again Sable had taken refuge from her lonely bedroom, “I’m pleased to announce that in anticipation of tomorrow’s big event, the Fabulous Weiss Hotel is once again open for business! So, if you need anything, please talk to David, and I’m sure he’ll be able to help.”

     Annette and Sable looked at each other. “Is he being serious?” Annette asked.

     “Well, there’s a window in my bedroom that looks out to the front entrance, we can go there to check,” Sable said, leading the way.

     When the arrived there, they looked down in shock at the sight before them.

~~~

The Front Entrance

     “That’s right!” Drake announced, looking absolutely elated to be doing his job, “I’m standing outside the freshly reopened Weiss hotel, where the magic community is gathering in droves to get their room in anticipation for tomorrow’s big event.” There were metal barriers and police presence keeping the paparazzi at bay, as limousines began allowing their very valuable cargo off in front of the hotel.

     Soon enough, there was an almost constant stream of celebrities walking down the red carpet. Among them, a Sikh man wearing a suit and a red dastar with a golden ruby was walking a tiger; A girl with blond hair that gradually turned red at the tips was stretching her lips around her short, muscular brunette girlfriend, eliciting a little giggle as the blonde snaked her arm a little tighter around the brunette’s arm; and an elderly fellow leading a woman who was wearing a green and black dress and was completely lacking a head were making their way towards the hotel’s grand entrance.

     “Ah! Penny! Jean! Wait up!” Drake said, pulling the cameraman along with him as he spotted the former guest hosts. The two’s shared body turned towards Drake, putting the suitcase she was carrying down on the ground so that she could give him a hug. The body was clearly Jean’s based on the pale, freckled body. She was wearing a dark blue, strapless dress, the reason for why it was strapless becoming obvious when looking where her breasts should have been.

     Replacing her breasts were Penny and Jean’s heads, their inner ears had been removed so that they wouldn’t feel as much discomfort from their heads rubbing so close together. “Drake! It’s so good to see you!” Penny grinned, Jean’s face blushing red slightly.

     “How have you girls been since your time on the show?” Drake asked.

     “Oh! We’ve been great! The Faceless Magician has seen a real uptick in viewership since we got back, and our blog’s traffic has been sky high!” Penny smiled.

     “Now, if you don’t mind me saying, that’s an absolutely stunning dress,” Drake said.

     “You haven’t even seen the best part!” Penny grinned, Jean’s body reached underneath her head, pulling up the fabric of the dress, the cups of the dress forming face masks for both assistants, “We had this dress specially commissioned for when the Plague broke out several months ago. Of course, we’re glad we never had to use it, but we thought it would be a shame if it didn’t get at least one public appearance,” Despite the fact her voice was muffled, Penny’s pleasure at the dress was readily apparent.

     “Amazing! And will you two be sharing Jean’s body for your whole stay?” Drake asked.

     “Oh no,” Penny shook her head, “I wouldn’t want our form to take away from the girl’s act tomorrow, so I made sure to bring my body with us,” Jean’s body patted the suitcase it had been carrying.

     “Well, that’s great to hear. I’ll leave you two to go check in,” Drake said, waving as the duo went off, “And we’ve still got plenty of famous people to see!”

     Down the aisle, another batch of people continued along, a reversed mermaid; A tall, unkempt magician who was being berated by his copper-haired assistant as they walked along; and a wiry-looking man with a claw having replaced his missing arm being some of the more notable appearances.

     “And would you look now, it’s Kairi and Natasha!” The two assistants walked down the red carpet towards Drake. Kairi was wearing Belle’s golden dress from beauty and the beast, her hair magically changed to match her’s, while Natasha had elected to enter having replaced her arms and her legs, wearing a skin-tight, sequined leotard to keep her modesty as she walked with her head hanging upside down between her legs. “Hello girls. How’s life been treating you lately?”

     “Pretty good,” Kairi said, “The ISAG has been getting requests for a lot more gigs recently thanks to the success of the show, so I really can’t complain.”

     “And what about you Natasha?”

     “Well, I’ve gotten so many requests for head pics after doing that photo shoot that Howard hooked up that I’m very seriously considering adding modeling as a side project,” Natasha blushed.

     “Ooh, if you need a good photographer, I know just the girl!” Kairi smiled, “In fact, there she is now!” Kairi pointed and a girl about Kairi’s height dressed in the blue suit that the Beast wore came running over.

     She kissed Kairi on the cheek, “Sorry honey, I just wanted to make sure the driver knew where to deliver our bags.

     “It’s okay Alex,” Kairi giggled, “I’m sure Howard would have taken care of it if something did happen to our stuff.”

     “It was great talking, girls, but I’m afraid even more guests are still showing up!” Drake let the two girls pass by.

     The crowd of people was starting to thin a little bit, finally, and eventually Drake ran into the last of the former hosts, “Frankie!” He smiled, “It’s wonderful to see you again!”

     “Likewise Drake,” Frankie grinned.

     “So, where’s the rest of ‘Frankie’s Girls’ right now?” Drake asked, nothing the absence of JJ, Jess, Trina, and Zoe.

     “Well, they’re currently all still hard at work producing the next short film in the Modern Art Series, so unfortunately they’re going to be flying in tomorrow. I told them to take a break, but they’re just so passionate about getting it out.”

     “That’s sad to hear, but I’m sure great news for fans of the series,” Drake said, “Will they be sticking around for the afterparty on Sunday?”

     “Oh absolutely!” Frankie grinned, “If there’s anything those girls love more than magic, it’s getting the chance to perform magic while getting drunk with friends.”

     “Ha ha!” Drake said, “Wonderful! Thank you so much for talking Frankie.” Frankie walked away and Drake looked towards the camera, “When we come back, we’ll be talking to more celebrities, so don’t turn that dial!”

~~~

Practice Room

     “Just try not to focus on the audience, girls,” Lisa said while they ran through their routine for the second time that morning.

     “But I thought that it was going to be just the same audience of normal people,” Sable said, sounding very nervous, “Not every single famous magician or assistant in the past fifty years.”

     “An audience of magicians is exactly the same as performing in front of an audience of people,” Ann said, “Just focus on making sure that you give it your all.”

     “But what if we do make a mistake on stage?” Annette asked, sounding about as equally concerned as Sable, “It’s one thing if we do it in front of a bunch of people who don’t know better, it’s a whole other thing to do it front of people who know the craft well.”

     “Don’t worry about it,” Lisa told them, “As long as you don’t freak out, the magician’s will appreciate your ability to press forwards despite any mistakes.”

     ”Do you really think so?” Sable asked.

     “Yep! Now, let’s go over the routine a few more times so we don’t have to find out if she’s right,” Ann said.

~~~

Lobby

     “Hello once again!” Drake said, addressing the camera, “We’re back in the lobby, where famous guests from all corners of the globe are still pouring in to book a room for tomorrow’s show!” The camera panned around, showing just how packed the room was. There was an orderly line up until the check-in desk, but beyond that then there were large crowds of people just milling around, nearly filling up the entire lobby.

     In one corner of the room, a dual changing station had been set up in order to allow people to get out of their fancy clothes while they waited for their room to get ready. A woman wearing a blue dress was standing in front of one of the stations, while presumably her magician stood in front of the other, wearing a large red tie with some initials embroidered on it.

     “Oh! There he is!” Drake heard. He turned around, coming face-to-face with Genie Schutter. “Drake, this is my family,” Genie said, gesturing behind her. The Schutter family seemed to be a rather odd bunch, with three seemingly normal members and two odd ones. Genie was obviously a four armed humantaur, but her fellow strange family member had two copies of his torso between his head and his legs, making him very easy to see over the crowd. The three family members included a normal looking man who seemed to be slightly older than Genie, and an even older couple who was most likely Genie’s parents, who managed to look impressively young for their age.

     The man from this couple walked forwards, seemingly towering over Drake despite the fact that he was only three inches taller, “So you’re the Drake my daughter has told me so much about?” Drake gulped audibly.

     “Ha ha! Daddy!” Genie said, getting in between the two and breaking up the potential conflict, “We’re here to celebrate, remember? Not to get into fights!” She turned towards Drake, “You’ll have to excuse him. You see this Real- I mean city’s on a different timezone from us, and he’s a little cranky from the jet lag.”

     Drake just tried to laugh off the threatening interaction, “No worries, Genie. So about that after party-“ Drake wasn’t able to finish his sentence, as the Schutter family was informed that their hotel room was ready, and they left him hanging for a response.

     Drake continued to mill around the Lobby, occasionally picking up snippets of the conversations people were having around him. For instance, a fox tailed assistant and a bald woman were discussing their thought on the upcoming ‘Sprites’ movie, in particular how the trailer portrayed fey-kind so poorly. Another strange duo, this time a South American woman with three legs and a long blonde ponytail, and a French woman who had her entire head replaced by a smaller copy of her upper torso, were talking about wether to eat in the hotel restaurant or go out to eat.

     “Drake!” A voice caught Drake off guard, as a woman waded her way through the crowd towards her, “How have you been?”

     “Rei!” Drake smiled, “How nice to see you!”

     “I really must apologize,” Rei said, clearly flustered, “for removing your head in the shop without your permission.”

     “Oh Rei,” Drake said, “It’s all water under the bridge. Speaking of your shop though, shouldn’t you be manning it right now?”

     “Oh, don’t worry,” Rei said, reaching into her sleeve and pulling out a large glass snow globe. Inside, a perfect model replica of her shop was situated within. “One of the perks of running a magic head shop. I can always keep an eye on it. Plus! This way, all of the heads can watch the show live!” She rotated a key in the base of the snow globe, and one of the walls of the store opened up, revealing the minified insides, and the heads looking out.

     If it wasn’t for the fact that there were easily hundreds, if not thousands, of heads in the store, Drake wouldn’t have been able to make out the tiny chorus of “Hello Drake!”

     “Well, that’s great to hear Rei. It always seems like you’ve got a hundred different problems in running the store. You deserve a break like this every now and again.”

     “That’s just what it’s like Drake,” Rei said, “There’s so many regulations I have to follow, and the heads always find something wrong that I have to fix, but I’ll never give up on them!”

     “It was great talking with you Rei,” Drake said, before turning to the camera, “And stay tuned. When we come back, we’ll be revealing our last batch of special guests!”

~~~

Dining Room

     Sable and Annette had stopped by the dining room in the hope that they would be able to get some lunch, but it became quickly apparent that if they did, it was going to be an extremely noisy affair.

     The room was absolutely packed to the brim with people! At one table, there were two men enjoying some food, one happily munching away on some cubed cheese appetizers, the other having cut himself off a bit of the whole roasted hog behind him.

     At another table, A larger, elderly man puffing on a cigar had a woman in each arm, one being taller with brown hair that reached down to the middle of her back, the other shorter and with blond hair.

     At still another table, a woman who was missing both her arms and legs was trying her best to eat the french fries put in front of her. Farther away, Two women, clearly sisters based on how similar they looked, were telling their male friend to quit laughing at her misfortune, the man’s reactions to everything around him seeming to indicate that he was tripping on some strange substance.

     Finally, the last table of note had a hairy, drunken man performing magic tricks on unsuspecting women as they passed by, his friends egging him on by giving him more beer to perform his tricks.

     “Annette! Sable! I’ve been looking all over for you!” Drake said, planting his hands on each of their shoulders, “We need to hurry, the meet and greet luncheon is about to start in the conference room 3.”

     Drake dragged both assistants to the Golden Elevator, pressing a button.

~~~

Conference Room 3

     The room looked like it could barely qualify to be a conference room, as it contained only a single large table with twelve seats. Annette and Sable nearly cried out in surprise when they saw who filled out those seats.

     Along the left wall, the contestants from the previous season of ANGA were sitting patiently. Jill, Saffron, Cammie, Leela, Holli, and Ophelia had been pleasantly chatting with the other half of the table.

     Of course, the other half of the table were the eliminated contestants from this season of ANGA: Patricia, Elise, Sinopia, and Maya. When the four girls saw that Annette and Sable had entered the room, they squealed (alright, so mainly Elise and Sinopia squealed, but they squealed twice as loud as normal) rushing over and forming a group hug. They were all practically shouting over each other.

     “Oh my God! Sable! Annette!” Elise was overrun with emotions, “It’s so good to see you two again! And really all of you girls! I’ve missed you all so much!”

     “Sable! You have to see the new house! It’s soooooo big!” Sinopia screamed.

     “Mono-I’s factory is so impressive!” Maya was gushing, “We’ve already done some tweaks to my logo to stylize it a bit more!”

     “The new lab I’m working at is better than I could have ever imagined,” Patricia said, finally expressing some joy, “They have some books in there that even I find difficult to understand.”

     “Girls! Please!” Annette managed to say, “You’re embarrassing us in front of the other contestants.”

     “She’s right,” Saffron grinned, standing up and giving Sable an affectionate noogie, “And that’s my job.”

     “*sigh* I see you’re still as annoying as ever, Saffron,” Ophelia said, a slight smile giving away her true feelings on Saffron’s display of affection.

     “I’m not that annoying!” Saffron shot back, “Just so proud of my little sister for making it all the way to the finals!”

     “Speaking of the finals,” Leela smiled warmly, “Is there anything you two want to ask us about to help you prepare for them?”

     “Maybe give you some tips on how best to win the crowd over?” Cammie asked.

     “Or how to keep things interesting?” Jill chimed in.

     “Now girls,” Holli said firmly, “I’m sure whatever these two wonderful contestants have enough stress with the competition as is. Why don’t we save this meeting for what it’s meant to be? The chance to take a break from our busy lives and get to learn more about one another?”

     The bickering of all of the girls was silent as a large table cloth descended from the ceiling, an unseen force whisking it away, leaving the table packed high with a variety of food. “Lunch is served!” A voice announced, the girls taking their seats and digging in.

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

& Question Corner &

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

     To Sable: “What you do with the magic I teach you is not my concern unless you plan on purging darkness across the land and anything similar. You are free to teach my lessons to others too. Though, you will be responsible if they do spread darkness across the land and I will take responsibility as well.” -Izzy

     Don’t worry Izzy. I always take responsibility for my own mistakes. If some knowledge that I passed along lead to something dangerous happening to my sisters, then I really don’t know what I would do with myself.

     To Everyone: “I'm looking forward to see the show's final, and the tricks our amazing girls can come up with. Also thanks to you showing what it means to be a good Assistant, I will try to work on myself, maybe I switch careers from Train Traffic Control to Magic Show Biz. Who knows, maybe I apply to the next Season, if that is possible for me. Anyway I want to thank you all for that wonderful insight.” -Andrea

     Howard: It’s certainly possible if you apply yourself correctly. My best recommendation would be to do some research and start training your magic reserves.

     To Sable and Annette: “Regardless of what you do or end up with, be the wonderful woman you are. Also, if I ever stumble upon you, if I get out of Germany that is, I will say hi! Thank you for inspiring me.” -Andrea

     Sable: Thank you so much Andrea!

     Annette: Yeah! Definitely say hi if you do!

     To Nora: “I haven't be able to meet your mom and your dad is now a wonderful, yet quite eccentric, man. Still you really should talk to him about your concerns, the last weeks have changed him to something better.” -Andrea

     I know… It’s just that with the stress from running the show, I think it’d probably be better if we had this sort of chat after things have settled down a bit.

     To David: “Well, I haven't much commented on your apperance at all, first of all. Thank you for being such a good friend and picking up with the girls. Second, how did you and Howard got to know each other?” -Andrea

     Firstly, thanks for the support. I try my best to be a gracious host.

     Secondly, the story of how Howard and I got to know each other is a long and complicated one that I’m sure would be too boring if I went into the nitty gritty of the details. So, I’ll do my best to summarize.

     I’m pretty sure the very first time the two of us met was when my father helped sign him to his agent. Dad had a habit of bringing his work friends home, and at the time he was seen as a young upstart in the community. I couldn’t have been much older than ten or twelve at the time though, so my memory of what happened at that meeting is hazy at best.

     Flash forwards a few years, Howard and Elana had left my father’s agent for one that promised him less money for more control of his act. I’ve started to form my act, with my high school sweetheart and eventually wife: Amanda. Howard and I ran along similar circuits, and occasionally we would be booked together on the same night.

     Flash forwards a few more years, and what had started out as the occasional chat with one another grew into a rivalry of sorts. Howard obviously had many more years of experience than I did, so he would almost always win our friendly competitions of who could reach certain viewership milestones. We each grew a budding respect for each other during this period.

     A lot of time passed, and then Elana died… I was one of the few people who was allowed by him to attend the funeral… We talked for a long time that night, mostly about stuff that I would be remiss if I shared what he had told me in confidence.

     After that, we kept in contact. I would make sure to call him at least once a month to check up on him. For the most part though, Howard kept to himself.

     When we had completed production of the first season of ANGA, and the producers asked me for my recommendation of who should be the magician for this season. Howard was my immediate thought, and the rest of the story has basically already been written.

     To Jill and Nora, Annette, Sable: “Next time I shall, but I'll see you at the after party of the movie premiere for sure. And to Annette and Sable, as we in show biz, brake a leg Saturday.” -Genie Schutter.

     Sable: Thanks, I think we’re going to need all the good luck we can get…

     Annette: Hopefully you’ll enjoy the show tomorrow Genie! Rocky, Sable, and I worked hard on it!

     Jill: Or just come on up to my bedroom later, and we can talk then! I’ll make sure to let Howard know to whitelist you for people that can come to my room.

     Nora: I can’t wait to see you at the afterparty! I hope your movie’s amazing!