The episode opened with each of the girls being unceremoniously awoken by a PA knocking on their hotel room doors, telling them to meet in the lobby in fifteen minutes to head over to film the introduction for their first proper challenge.
Yesterday had been a rather exhausting day, filled with new experiences and long flight times, so by the time they had arrived at the hotel the contestants had opted to simply stay in, order room service, and recuperate for the grueling week ahead. Thankfully, the increased feeling of magical energy offered by the Wellspring meant that most of their recovery processes were quick and painless.
Unlike in years prior, the hotel room they had received were all rather standard to eachother. The hotel (the Moleside Inn) was composed of several long, interconnected tunnels with rather regular looking normal wooden doors to each room with standard key card locks.
The rooms themselves looked like someone had slapped all of the standard amenities of a hotel room (bed, couch, tv, fridge, microwave, sink, bathroom, etc) and placed them into a cave. The blue, chalky floor stained the soles of the feet of the contestants who who had walked around barefoot, but otherwise it was basically the same as any other hotel.
All of the girls dressed up in rather plain clothes (mostly t-shirts of their favorite color, and either jeans or shorts), and after meeting Martin in the lobby (who was busy straightening his blue blazer), made their way into the Atrium proper.
Unlike when they had arrived yesterday, the Atrium was absolutely abuzz with activity. Various creatures of all shapes and sizes were running through, from one tunnel to another. The air was equally as active as the ground, with several harpies and angels flying from one tunnel to the next, typically holding a parcel or letter in their hands/talons.
The various store tunnels had opened up, many of which had fast-talking spruikers listing off their specials and great deals, trying to pull in customers. The stores that were on higher levels of the atrium had dropped down specially designed ladders that twisted around other holes, so that the fast moving traffic could continue on, uninterrupted.
“Oh Wow!” Kacie shouted, barely being audible over the hubbub, as Martin walked them towards one of the noticeable larger tunnels on the ground floor that had a road sign for ‘Sydney’ above it. “The Wellspring sure is busy!”
“Yeah!” Martin smiled back at her and the other contestants, “The Down Under sort of has some really convenient space-warping properties. It’s basically used as a sort of magic super-highway for the Eastern half of Australia.” The sea of people walked around them, creating a sort of bubble for the contestants to comfortably walk along and not have to worry about getting separated from one another.
“Wait,” Rachel asked, “If there’s an entrance to this place in Sydney, why didn’t we just go in from there?”
“Well, what we came in through used to be the main entrance for the Wellspring,” Martin explained, “It’s not used as much anymore because the city entrances are much more convenient, but that was the very first entrance discovered to the Down Under.”
“But didn’t the sign say it was condemned?” Rachel asked.
“Mostly from neglect,” Martin sighed, “Not much use in maintaining an entrance that’s not as convenient to get to.”
“That’s awful!” Natalie shouted, her voice barely audible over the crowd, “If it’s the very first entrance, they should make a better effort to keep it operational.”
“There’s been some calls to do just that, but the Australian’s Government’s been pretty slow to actually implement anything,” Martin explained.
The group paused as the arrived at the end of the tunnel. Rather than how they had originally entered the Down Under, this entrance seemed to be much more streamlined.
There were various man hole covers across the ground, and as people would step on them, the manhole cover would rapidly flip over, pulling the occupant quickly through the blue ground.
The girls watched as Martin stepped on one of these manhole covers, before quickly following right behind him.
~~~
The Enmore Theater
The girls were swung through the concrete sidewalk, slightly disoriented by the rapid rotation, and blinded by the bright sun over Sydney. Drake was awaiting patiently outside of their destination, commenting, “Glad to see you all could make it. Please head on in, the show’s about to start.”
The building he was standing outside of looked a bit like a classic style movie theater in the states. It had an orangish-red aesthetic, a generous awning with lights strung along its edge, and a large inverse T like structure above it’s primary poster spot. Underneath the awning it had several smaller posters hanging up on the wall advertising the fact that ANGA World Tour was going to have a live showing next Saturday. A little bit away from its main entrance, the word ‘Enmore’ was written in stylized black letters.
The girls entered through the red, wooden doors.
The theater the contestants found themselves in had a wonderful sense of decor and style missing from a lot of more modern theaters. The lobby way had classy red and gold carpeting, with red velvet ropes worming its way towards an unmanned ticket booth. The girls were lead up the staircases on either side of the lobby to the second floor, where they made their way into
The theater proper was comprised of a single large room with two levels of seating. The red carpet design was present throughout, and the pattern seemed to leap up off the floor and repeat itself on the chairs. The large concrete walls almost had a certain marble-like look to them, and despite the retro aesthetic, there was plenty of modern sound and lightening equipment set up to provide the best viewing experience.
The girls were lead down the staircase of the balcony by Martin, taking the center seats of the frontmost row. When they did so, the lights went down, and the classic message about silencing cellphones and recording not allowed was played. A spotlight shown down on the thick red curtains hiding the stage.
Drake walked, the spotlight following him as the small audience politely clapped (Natalie was screaming her head off in excitement). He was wearing a classic styled tuxedo and a fond smile on his face, “Ladies and Martin,” he joked, eliciting some giggles, “The act I’m about to introduce, really needs no introduction. After all, I’m certain that they were probably one of the first two acts that came to your mind when we touched down in Australia.
They’re active supporters of the show, have worked with countless magicians all across the world, are staunch fighters for bettering assistants lives internationally. They’ve had a successful magic TV show of their own, however tonight, they will be performing for you as just their wonderful selves. Please put your hands together, for Penny and Jean,” Drake applauded along with the contestants as he walked off stage, taking a seat of his own on the lower level of the theater to enjoy.
The curtains rose, and Penny and Jean were standing in the center of the stage. They were in much the same pose they had used to start their show last year, holding each other’s inner hand (or in Penny’s case, both of her inner hands) by their side while extending their outer hand outwards. Despite this similarity, to how they opened their act, the two looked rather drastically different.
Jean was wearing a blue tank top, pink short skirt, and dark purple shin-high boots. Around her neck, she had a similarly colored, dark purple chocker, and perched upon her head was an adorably tiny tophat with a purple bow tied around it. Her brown hair was tied in a side braid.
Unlike last year, she was performing proudly with her face present, a look of excitement in her eyes. The other drastic change, was that she was now sporting two perky, brown cat ears on either side of her adorable tiny tophat. A similarly colored tail could barely be seen poking out from edges of her pink dress.
Penny’s shape was drastically different to what one would expect from a normal human. Rather than having the normal amount of legs and arms (that being two each), Penny had three legs, and four arms. She was wearing a form fitting, dark blue leotard; black gloves; and a three-of-a-pair black pantyhose with bright blue stilettos. She has a smile on her face similar to Jeans, but seemed to be much more in control of her energy.
The two took a bow, the murmurings of their own private orchestra tuning up. As soon as they stood back up again, Penny pulled Jean towards her, the cat girl doing a spin as she was thrown off guard. Right as she was about to hit the floor, Penny, flexed, freezing the spinning girl in place, as the orchestra hit the beat, quickly transitioning into a Tango style beat.
Penny helped pull Jean standing up, and the two began to Tango around the stage, their five legs moving in a strangely alluring syncopated rhythm to the orchestra. When the music would swell up, the two would strike a pose, taking use of Penny’s impossible anatomy to further add to the allure and romance of the dance.
The two tangoed off stage left, and suddenly the orchestra began to shift, immediately swapping to a more Jazz oriented beat. From offstage, Penny pushed out what appeared to be a modified sawing in half box, with Jean laying seductively on top of it. As they reached center stage, jazz tune still blaring, Penny circled the box around, rotating Jean, who for her part was absolutely owning her pose.
After around three quick rotations, Penny stopped, her and Jean both facing the audience, and their orchestra growing silent. “And now, a sawing in seven parts,” Penny said, grinning, as she snapped her fingers.
“Bla-!” Jean barely managed to get out, as the top of the box she was laying on fell inwards. As Penny walked off stage to retrieve something, Jean excitedly wormed herself around, properly aligning herself within the big box. It seemed that the dimensions of the box were not all that great, as it seemed that there was still quite a bit of her arms and legs visible, while the part of the box framing her head was visibly way too large.
Penny returned, carrying three handsaws in three of her four hands, while her fourth carried several planks of wood that were a similar color to the box. She was whistling a merry tune, and as she approached Jean, Jean did her best to look up towards Penny, gently vibrating against the box excitedly.
Penny stood right at the top of Jean’s horizontal box, lining up her three saws such that she had one saw positioned below Jean’s armpits, and her third one positioned right between Jean’s legs. This position was a little awkward for her, but thanks to her improved flexibility, Penny was able to accomplish it with ease.
As Penny pulled all three of her saws back towards Jean’s head, Jean couldn’t do anything but giggle, the cold feeling of the saw’s teeth tickling her insides too much for the poor cat girl to handle. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for Penny to completely slice through Jean’s shoulders, and with the third blade taking a much longer path, Penny decided to show some mercy and stopped it right before reaching Jean’s neck.
From her shoulders two more arms burst out, grabbing several chunks of wood from her previous fourth arm, and slotting them into places she had just cut. Then, she walked towards Jean’s left side so that Jean was standing in front of her, and with her three saws, cut once more in three places: Jean’s thighs, waist, and neck. This cut when much more smoothly, so Jean only managed to get a couple of giggles out. Just as before, Penny used her extra arms to slot in some more wood, before disappearing the extra appendages (bringing her count back down to the high number of four) and the saws.
Penny then began unlatching the newly formed boxes containing Jean’s parts, revealing her intentions, as she first carried the four boxes containing her limbs to the front of the stage, followed quickly by the four containing her hips, head, and halves of her torso.
Each box was approximately the same height and width, and while the ones containing her limbs extended slightly out past the top of the box (Jean taking the opportunity to wave at the audience with both her hands), the others contained there part quite well, completely encapsulating them.
Penny smiled, walking over to the first box containing Jean’s head. “Well, say goodbye, Jean.”
“Goodbye Jean!” She smiled sticking her tongue out in a playful manner. Penny rolled her eyes and giving her own smile at her partner, an booping her on the nose before reaching towards the top of the box and pulling down an unseen blind. This blind has a picture of Jean’s head on it.
Penny proceeded to walk down the row of boxes, pulling down each blind, which displayed the body part contained within. When she reached the limbs that extended past the top of the box, she would first pull the blind down, followed by impossible stuffing the limb into the box and closing the lid.
With the blinds all pulled down, Penny returned to center stage, snapping her fingers once more. The blinds all quickly popped back up, revealing that Jean’s parts had all completely gone missing.
Penny then proceeded to go down the line again pulling down blinds on each of the similarly sized small boxes. However, this time as she stepped away, each of the blinds now showed a silhouette cutout of Jean’s entire body.
When she reached the last of these boxes, Penny once again returned to center stage, grinning at the crowd as she snapped her fingers once more.
Instead of the blinds pulling away, each of the eight smaller boxed simply collapsed, revealing the new contents they had been holding.
Standing on a small platform base were now eight, approximately 1.5 foot tall copies of Jean. They all were wearing the exact same outfit she had been wearing earlier, and before any of them really could react, Penny rushed over, sweeping the octuplets into a massive, four-armed bear hug. Some of the clones struggled against Penny, while others embraced their massive partner.
After holding this position for a while, Penny’s eyes lit up wickedly, “You know, seeing you this small reminds me of my favorite game.”
The Jeans who had been struggling, anticipating this moment were struggling even more. One of the Jean clones spoke up, her voice a much higher pitch than usual, “Which one?”
“Cat and Mouse.” Penny grinned, as she dropped the Jeans to the floor, some of them starting to run away in mock fear, as from behind her Penny pulls out a massive toy hammer. It was so big, that in order to pick it up, Penny had to use both pairs of her arms.
The orchestra, which had been remaining mostly silent up to this point, started playing some silly chase music, as Penny chased after the tiny Jeans with her giant mallet. Every now and then, she would successfully manage to hit one. She would follow this up with peeling the clone off her hammer, showing off the flattened disc of her friend to the audience.
These shenanigans went on for a while, until Penny had finally collected the complete set of commemorative Jean plates.
“I’m afraid that that was all we had planned for the night,” Penny smiled, “but I think I’ve got one more trick to show you,” She held up the flat circles of Jeans in her hands. “I’m going to make Jean, disappear!”
Penny grabbed the first flat Jean, holding it to her stomach, the audience watching in awe as it absorbed into Penny’s being. As it vanished, Penny features began to shift ever so slightly. Her hair began to grow slightly darker and longer, two brownish tips barely beginning to poke out out of the top, Her panty hose began to retract towards her stilettos, which seemed to be growing upwards and becoming darker. Her dark blue leotard was lightening up slightly, and around her hips, it seemed to almost flare out and turn pinkish. Her facial features also seemed to shift slightly, as her breasts grew ever so slightly larger.
As Penny began to feed more of Jean into herself, these changes only grew more and more pronounced, until the last Jean plate had been absorbed.
Now, standing on stage was a merged being created from Penny and Jean. She had brownish orange cat ears, two long pushy striped cat tails, four arms, three legs, and truly massive breasts. Her outfit looked similar to what Jean had been wearing, although several shades darker, and with the purple ribbon that had previously been wrapped around Jean’s tiny tophat now wrapping around each of her shin high black heeled boots.
The combined form of Jean and Penny stood at the center of the stage, taking a massive bow as the audience of contestants applauded wildly (Natalie, of course, being the loudest out of any of them).
Drake walked back on stage from his seat, “Thank you so much for the performance…” Drake fished for the new combined girl’s name.
“Jenny will be fine,” She smiled.
“I thought so, always good to double check though,” Drake smirked. “In any case, would you be interested in reading this week’s challenge for our contestants?”
“Sure thing,” Jenny grinned, accepting an envelope with a large red seal on the front with the ANGA logo embedded on it. She popped the letter open, and read the contents aloud.
"A great assistant should be a game changer: Able to flip any performance on it's head, and what better place to do that in than the Land Down Under?
Your task this week, is to design a trick revolving around the theme of 'Upside Down'. How you choose to interpret that theme is up to you.”
The would-be assistants all looked at each other a little perplexed by the unorthodox theme. Jenny, for her part, closed the letter and handed it back to Drake, she smiled up at the assistants, “I know that all of you are going to do an amazing job with this one, so enjoy the rest of the day, and get ready for a long week!”
~~~
After the Show
After their morning presentation, the girls had been set free to their own devices. Since they were all still relatively new to the continent, they sort of split off on their own separate ways to check things out.
Kacie, Natalie, and Dahlia all went together looking for a mall or shopping outlet to get some shopping done before they had to start planning for their performances for the week. Eventually they stumbled into Westfield Sydney, where they each went their looking for their own separate interests. Kacie’s obviously being a record store, Natalie’s a bookstore, and Dahlia looking around some of the fancy fashion boutiques.
Rachel seemed like she was on a mission as she walked around Sydney with the map Joey had provided her the day before. She was taking notes down on it whenever she passed either a bar or club, jotting things down such as prices or dress codes.
Paxton, not really sure of what she wanted to accomplish today, simply walked along the sidewalk closest to the short, occasionally glancing out across the ocean at passing ships.
Olive had gone back to her room. While the others had gotten over their jet lag well enough, she was still suffering a little bit, and thought it best to lie down to fix her schedule up for the next day than push herself any further.
That evening, the girls returned to the Moleside inn refreshed and ready to face their first challenge head on!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Everyone: “I hope everyone enjoys the stay! Watch out for danger noodles and swoopy bois, and if you ever encounter a dunny make sure to check for redbacks before you cack your dacks.” -@@MagicJeans
Olive: “Ah, don’t ya worry. Us Minnesotan’s are a very tough breed.”
Dahlia: Dahlia just smiles politely and nods, not really certain of what Jean had just said.
Rachel: “Ooh. Danger noodles and swoopy bois? I’m going to need to see these for myself.”
Natalie: “Agh! Jean! You were amazing today! Well, really both you and Penny! But you did such a good job! And when you two merged! So cool!"
Paxton: “Thanks for the advice? I think?”
Kacie: “Make sure to check outhouses for spiders? Sure thing.”
To Everyone: “Oh my, welcome to ANGA World Tour again and congratulations on coming to your first stop on your journey. Now for all of you, you are all already winner in my book and I'm proud to say that I can't wait to meet you too.
Now here in Australia three well known Assistants/Magicians will be there for you and help you to improve your game, just a lil hint, I'm friends with all of them.
Good luck and again, I can't wait to see you in Europe.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Natalie: “You’re talking about Penny, Jean, and Frankie, right? Because, I mean, we already met Penny and Jean, and I find it hard to believe that we’d go the season without seeing Frankie, seeing as how she’s the only Australian to have appeared in the two seasons prior.”
Kacie: “You’re going to meet us in Europe? Well, I hope it’s as part of the show, but if it’s not, I’m sure we can schedule somewhere secluded to uncloak and meet up.”
Paxton: “Thanks, Andrea… I’m looking forwards to meeting you.”
Olive: “Why think you, Dearie. You always have the nicest things to say.”
Dahlia: “Thanks,” Dahlia smiles warmly.
Rachel: “Oh boy, I’m so excited for Europe week. It’s been a while since the last time I stopped by Italy, and I want to see how much has changed. I really hope that I can make it past this first week and make it there.”
To Everyone: “I definitely wishing everyone a great stay in the Down Under!
I'd add to Jean's warnings, reminding you to be sure to check your shoes for any unexpected mates whenever you go to put them on, but don't mind the yowies, they are just misunderstood! The bunyips though? I'd reckon you don't want to be within cooee of one of those blokes, mad as a cut snake they are! Best do the Harold Holt if you see one rock up looking for a blue, or you'll be in the back of an ambo in no time!” -@@Ms-Frankie
Dahlia: If Dahlia seemed confused with Jean’s comment, Frankie’s only seemed to confuse her further, as she didn’t feel comfortable enough to even nod along.
Rachel: “Ooh. I knew that people often said the Australian Outback was a dangerous place, but I could never imagine it would have so much interesting wildlife.”
Natalie: “Oh my God! First Jean and now Frankie! In the same night! This is so unbelievably amazing! Oh! And thank you two so much for the advice! I’ll be sure to be extra safe when walking around in the outback!”
Olive: “I’m afraid I don’t you understand you Ms. Frankie all that well with your accent.”
Paxton: Paxton mumbles something incoherently about not having a clue what Frankie said.
Kacie: “Okay, I’ll make sure to check my shoes before I put them on, and steer clear of any bunyips I come across.”
To Paxton: “Hey there Paxton, its good to see you made on your first leg of your journey. I hope you have fun at the wellspring. I've been to that one a few times myself. And you were the first to find it congratulations! “ -Genie Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton blushes, her mood seemingly slightly better. “Thanks. But all I did was fall in a hole.”
To Martin & Drake: “JEALOUS EMOJI! Oh my! I'm so jealous in all of that nice stuff you can afford for this show unlike at my end. Also nice seeing you again Drake! Good luck this year and don't let my jealous rage get in the way lol. Kidding, but I do really mean it when I wish you two well.” - Rei (@@quad2)
Drake: “Hey Rei. Glad to see you’re still doing well. I hope the shop’s been doing fine.”
Martin: Martin smiles, “Hello Rei. Thanks for the well wishes, I’m hoping you’re doing well too.”
To Paxton: “Hey! Don't be rude to my Little Drakie!” - Rei (@@quad2)
Paxton: “Sorry,” Paxton looks down at her feet, mumbling, “I won’t do it again.”
To Kacie: “How does your head work? Like does your consciousness transfer to Tetra? Or you are both sentient. It seems creepy to talk to yourself.” - Noel (@@quad2)
Kacie: “So, I don’t know how much detail I can go into how Tetra works, because I sort of only understand the surface level stuff. My friend Joel was the one who dealt with all the mechanics and various enchantments that makes Tetra function.
The underlying magic is basically the same as duplication magic. I’m technically always in control of both heads at the same time, and can sort of suppress either of my consciousness to have the head enter a sort of ‘sleeping’ state. Any time you see me talking to myself, it’s more or less like when you talk to yourself in your head, and I’ll sometimes do it just to work through an idea.”
To Contestants: “Entry into the wellspring via basically a quicksand pit must’ve been quite an experience. How would you describe it?” - Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)
Kacie: “It all happened pretty quickly, sort of imagine like you did a flip into a pool, but instead of water, it fell like sand getting everywhere.”
Rachel: “It was a little bit of a hard landing, I probably shouldn’t have cannonballed in, but I’m sure it looked really cool.”
Olive: “Oh, it scared the dickens out of me! One minute i was searching for Paxton, and the next thing I knew I was being swallowed up by the Earth!
Paxton: “A mess, really.”
Dahlia: “Sandy… It took a while to get it off.”
Natalie: “It’s definitely up there as one of the coolest things I think I’ve ever done in my life. Right up there with being chosen for ANGA, and completing the first shelf of my collection.”
To ANGA Productions Crew: “I have a feeling that there will be some people who will try to track down the entry point to the wellspring and try to gain entry themselves. Do you have any measures to prevent any, let’s say, unwanted visitors from getting in?” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)
Drake: “Hello Shannon,
I’m afraid I’m not as well versed as David or Howard would be on this matter, but from my understanding of how Wellsprings work, it takes a lot more than knowing the location of an entrance to be able to enter one.
Wellsprings are essentially little pocket dimensions of magic, and while we know a lot of stuff about magic, there’s easily thousands of time more that we don’t really know. One of those things we don’t really know for certain is how Wellsprings determine whether or not someone is worthy of entering them, as it seems that each one almost has its own rules and requirements.
What we do know, though, is that if a wellspring doesn’t deem you worthy, it won’t let you enter, even if you had the exact coordinates down, and if it can tell you know where to be looking but can’t find it, then it emits some sort of warding spell that will increase the likelihood of forgetting it’s location.
As for stopping people who know about the entrances and are deemed worthy by the wellspring? Well, we can’t exactly stop them from entering (there are several legitimate businesses that operate in Wellsprings after all), but we do have some enchanted objects to help the contestants and crew not be noticed (you can watch an explanation of those object here) and also a general security team on call if things get extraordinarily dicey.”