On their third day in Australia, things got off to a bit of a rocky start.

     With the press junkets and other events he was expected to deal with, Martin only had enough time in the day to be able to schedule two rehearsals. This obviously caused some issues, when five of his would-be assistants, amped up thanks to the their newly acquired challenge, approached him at breakfast hoping to schedule some time to practice with him. Only Paxton had elected to not bother Martin at such an early hour.

     “Girls!” Martin laughed, holding his hands up defensively, his spoon resting in his bowl of cheerios, “I’m really sorry, but arguing about who’s going to get to practice with me isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

     “But Saturday’s only five days away!” Natalie whined, “And assuming we have a midweek challenge tomorrow, that’s only going to leave four days of rehearsal time! Three if the punishment is particularly nasty!”

     “I know,” Martin sighed, “But my hands are tied on this one, unfortunately.”

     “Why is one of the largest magic shows in the world even having you deal with the press?” Rachel asked.

     “Probably advertisement,” Kacie piped in, “My manager will usually have me go on a couple of radio shows before a gig to help encourage people to show up.”

     Martin nodded, “Exactly. It’s also a sign of good faith to our sponsors and the regulating committees. After all, they were kind enough to allow us to perform here and pay for production fees.”

     “…Still,” Dahlia said, “… Shouldn’t the competition take first priority?”

     “I don’t pretend to know what Production is thinking,” Martin sighed, “I’m just unfortunately bound to complete their requests.”

     “In any case,” Martin smiled, trying to steer the subject back on track “Are any of you willing to forgo your turn today? I’ll give you first dibs for Wednesday rehearsals.”

     Rachel raised her hand, “I guess I can wait a couple of days. There were a couple of spots I wanted to check out anyways.”
    “Oh, I’ll join you then, Dear,” Olive smiled, her exhaustion from the previous day now completely gone, “It’ll give me a bit more time to figure out I wanna do.”

     “And I guess I could just use the extra day to really lock in my playlist,” Kacie begrudgingly admitted.

     “Great,” Martin flashed his trademark smile, “Thanks for volunteering you three. I swear to you that you’ll get first dibs on Wednesday. And as for you two,” Martin pointed at Natalie and Dahlia, “The first slot will be available in an hour, we’ll be rehearsing in a practice studio I rented in downtown Sydney, I’ll show you the exact location after breakfast.”
    And with that, Olive and Rachel split off from the group to go explore town, while the other three girls went to the self-serve breakfast station to grab a bite to eat, leaving Martin a moment of peace as he took another spoonful of cheerios.

~~~

Natalie’s Practice

     The practice studio was rather plain by previous season comparisons, seeing as how it was essentially a dance rehearsal hall being appropriated as a magic rehearsal hall. It had a wall-length mirror with a railing across it and wooden flooring.

     Natalie had came prepared with a notepad, and was already grilling Martin on what she thought they should be doing for their performance.

     “So, when Jenny announced the theme yesterday for the competition, my mind immediately started raking through all the classic tricks I knew that involved the assistants hanging upside down, and I think I found a few we could feasibly do.” She flipped her notepad to the first page, flipping the page each successive time she got to the next item.

     “So, we could do an escape routine where you put me in a straight jacket and hang me upside down over something dangerous like a tank full of piranhas.

     Or maybe you could strap me to a spinning wheel and try throwing some daggers at me an missing, and then compete the trick by throwing the daggers into me.

     Or maybe you could do a Mismade where you leave the boxes in an upside down order. So, legs, thighs, chest, head,” Natalie’s hand went down from the top down with each part she described.

     “Natalie,” Martin tried to get her attention.

     “Or, we could do the trick where they have the parts on rails that slide up and down, and you could reverse where my body parts are on my body.”

     “Natalie,”

     “Or we could try-“

     “Natalie!” Martin shouted, startling the excited girl out of her list.

     “Yeah?” She asked, blushing profusely.

 Martin smiled warmly at her, “How about we just start this rehearsal off with the basics?”

     “B-but. But I already know the basics,” Natalie said, holding up her notepad. “I’ve been studying the basics for years!”

     “But do you have any practical experience with performing magic in front of a crowd?”

     “N-no…” Natalie looked embarrassed.

     “And what about actually performing the tricks in general?”

     “Well… I’ve performed them on my mini-figs,” Natalie’s confidence in her words had gone down slightly.

     “Hey now!” Martin smiled, “Don’t worry. That’s why we’re doing this practice session after all. Here, um…” Martin looked around the room. Disappointingly, it was not stocked with any sort of modular boxes that would have fit the aesthetic that Natalie most likely was aiming for. “Why don’t you just lie down on the floor?”

     “Okay,” Natalie said, her voice perking up slightly.

     “Great, just like that. Now, hold your hands up. Great,” Martin walked over, gripping Natalie’s hand in his own, causing her to blush, “Now, I’m going to channel some magic into you to split you in half at the waist. I want you to really focus on the effect, and try to understand what it feels like.” Natalie nodded her head, and Martin began pulling her arms backwards, focusing on his desired effect.

     Natalie’s body perfectly severed itself in two, the force of Martin’s pulling somehow being enough to rip the small mousey girl in half. Unlike with how the seam would have been separated when using a handsaw, the process was rather unique, with sinuous connections of skin breaking apart unevenly, and leaving an edge that sort of looked like when someone pulled a ball of clay apart.

     “Now, that’s one way it might feel, now let’s set back up to one and I’ll do one on you that’s closer to what it would feel like when a saw passes through you."

     Martin and Natalie practice a couple more common standard divisions and transformations, such as further subdividing her body into fourths, or vanishing her head, even attempting twisting her body up like a ribbon. Before the two parted ways, he assigned her some homework: To practice the effects in the wellspring, and to hopefully have strong enough reserves to be able perform some of them in the real world by the next time they rehearsed.

~~~

Phillip St (Olive and Rachel)

     The two assistants emerged from the Down Under on Phillips street in front of a subway station. “So, do you have someone back home rooting for you,” Olive asked, as they began heading North.

     Rachel smirked, “That’s a pretty personal question.”

     “Oh, I’m sorry,” Olive laughed, “It’s just, you young girls remind me so much of my daughter, Hannah. The Mama Bear in me can’t help but come out and just want to hug and get know everything about you guys. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

     “No, it’s okay,” Rachel smiled, “Just caught me a little off guard. I’m pretty sure my folks are probably rooting for me.”

     The two women reached an intersection, turning left onto Hunter St. “So, no boyfriend or anything then?”

     “Ha ha. Now you’re reminding me of my Mom,” Rachel laughed, “No, I’ve been on a couple of dates, but unfortunately I’m between scumbags right now.”

     “Oh jeepers. I’m sorry to hear that,” Olive looked concerned, “I’m sure you’ll find the right guy one day.”

     “Maybe,” Rachel sighed.

     The two walked in silence for a while, passing by a pizza restaurant across the street that seemed to be busy with a large amount of customers. “Can I ask your for a favor, Dear?” Olive asked.

     “I mean sure. Depends on what the favor is though.”

     “You know that, uh, sad girl. Paxton?”

     “Yeah?”

     “Well, I know she’s been feeling under the weather recently, and you seem just the type of outgoing personality who probably knows how to cheer others up.”

     “Not necessarily how to cheer up, but I definitely know how to make peoples problems go away, even if temporarily.”

     “Would you be dear and try and get Paxton out of her room tonight? Maybe take her out dancing. I know that certainly used to make me happy when I was her age.”

     “Okay… But why do you want to help her?”

     “It seems to me like the poor Dear’s going through a bit of a crisis right now, and the Mother in me feels awful that she’s suffering,” Olive explained it matter of factly, “I’d be doing the same for you if you ever feel that way, just so you know.”

~~~

Dahlia’s Practice

     “Hey Dahlia,” Martin smiled at her as she walked into the studio. “How has your day been so far?”

     “…Good,” Dahlia smiled back at him.

     “Great, any ideas what you want to do for your first act?”

     “…I’d really like to be able to dance,” Dahlia said, “Like Penny and Jean did… On stage,” She mimed some tango dancing, “The two of them… dancing as one,” She smiled at the memory, closing her eyes in order to better visualize it.

     “Well, we could certainly do a dance number,” Martin said, “Although remember, you need to incorporate the theme of ‘upside down’ into it.”

     Dahlia wasn’t paying him any mind, seemingly lost in her own world as her tango shifted into more of a waltz step and timing. “Uh… Dahlia?” Martin asked.

     Dahlia snapped out of her reverie, “Hmm!? Oh! Sorry!” She blushed profusely, “The dancing- and the music- sort of just-“

     “It’s alright,” Martin laughed, “I can understand how excited you clearly are. I just wanted to make sure you remembered the theme you’re aiming for.”

     Dahlia still seemed distressed, tying her hair around her finger nervously, “…Y-yes… I’m still working on that…”

     “Well, don’t stress out about it too much,” Martin tried to give her a reassuring smile, “You’ve still got four days left. We could brainstorm some stuff now if you think that would be a better use of your time.”

     Dahlia hugged herself defensively. “N-no… I think I need to… think of this on my own.”

     Martin raised an eyebrow. “Um… Okay.”

     Dahlia seemed to calm down, her demeanor shifting slightly as she unwrapped herself. “Sorry… We can do some dance rehearsal if you’d like… Like Tango?”

     “Um. Sure?” Martin scratched his head, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to teach me the steps for any dances you want to do.”

     Dahlia and Martin managed to bungle their way through several partner dance tutorials on Youtube. While they still weren’t in perfect sync, there was definitely some improvement.

~~~

Moleside Inn (Evening, Paxton and Rachel)

     Paxton was relaxing in her room, when she heard a knock on her door. She opened it up, only to be met face to face with Rachel, who was looking down at her with a smug look on her face. She was wearing a pink cocktail dress and red heels that made her nearly a full head taller than Paxton. “Yes?” Paxton asked, confused.

     “So… Kacie, Dahlia, and I are going to this bar I found yesterday for some drinks and dancing… And we were wondering if you wanted to join us?” Paxton looked at Rachel, a look of concentration on her face as she tried to get a read if Rachel was pulling some sort of prank on her.

     “Well-“

     “Oh come on, Paxton.” Rachel rolled her eyes, “You can’t spent the entirety of the trip in your bedroom. The first midweek challenge is tomorrow, and we’re probably going to all be busy the rest of the week. This is the only time we’ll be able to have a proper girls night, and we all think it would be a shame if you missed out on it.”

     Paxton stared at her for a bit longer in confusion. She certainly seemed like she meant what she was saying.

     Eventually Paxton gave in, sighing and saying, “Okay. Let me just-“

     But before she could even finish her sentence, Rachel said, “Great!” Grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out of her bedroom towards where the two other contestants were waiting patiently.

~~~

The Coolabah (Kacie, Rachel, Paxton, Dahlia)

      The girls had made their way to ‘The Coolabah’, an active night club on the eastern seashore of Sydney. It was mostly comprised of a single large room, with a large eucalyptus tree hogging up the middle of the dance floor, with a bar circling around it, the bartenders storing the drinks on shelves carved into the tree trunk.

     The four girls were arranged at a round table, everyone besides Rachel was wearing normal street clothes. Rachel came back from her journey to the bar carrying four drinks precariously in her hands, “Alright girls. I’ll be covering the first and second round tonight, but after that I’m afraid you’re on your own.” She handed out one drink to each girl, before downing her own cup in a single, long pull.

     “What’s in it?” Kacie asked, looking at the cup nervously.

     “Oh, just a little something-something to loosen you up a little bit,” Rachel winked.

     “No, I mean, are there any potions in it or-“

     As the two were talking Paxton had already drank half of her own beer. Smiling, she said, “Mmm. It tastes like cider!”

     “Yep,” Rachel smiled, “It’s one of my favorites.”

     “…What’s it called?” Dahlia asked, having drunk about a third of her own glass at this point.

     “It’s called a ‘Juicy Core’,” Rachel explained, “It’s got apple cider, butterscotch schnapps, some slime extract-“

     “So it is a potion cocktail then,” Kacie grinned, having drank about two thirds of her own drink by this point.

     “Of course,” Kacie grinned, already feeling the effects of her drink starting to take place, “It’s a must have when doing a ‘friend sampler’.”

     “A what?” Paxton asked.

     A waiter walked by. He was an orange skinned fellow with four muscular arms. He was carrying a silver tray which he placed in the center of the table, “A ‘friend sampler’ for table 23. Can I get you girls anything else to drink?”

     “No thanks,” Rachel grinned, “This should be more than enough.” The waiter nodded heading off to their neighboring table and starting to pick up the various glasses left behind.

     The ‘friend sampler’ was a tray of around six empty glasses, and a variety of miniature bottles filled with contents perfect for making mixed drinks, like coke, sprite, vodka, simple syrups, etc. And most interesting of all, four spigots in the very center.

     “Alright girls, like I said, the second round’s also on me,” Rachel grinned, reaching to the center of the tray and grabbing one of the spigots. The other girls continued to nurse their ‘Juicy Cores’ and watched as Rachel placed four of the glasses in front of her, before jamming the spigot into her elbow, the sharp end puncturing her skin like it was nothing.

     Rachel turned the handle on the spigot, and they watched, entranced, as a liquid similar in tone to Rachel’s skin color began to pour out into the glass below. As it filled, it almost seemed like Rachel’s fingers were beginning to descend into her hand. When the first glass was about three quarters full, Rachel moved on to the next one, most of the her hand up to her knuckles now completely gone.

     When the fourth glass was filled, the spigot slowly dripped out the last remains of Rachel’s arm. She removed the spigot from her elbow, flexing her abbreviated arm, as she passed out on of the glasses to each of the girls present at the table. “Here you go! Feel free to add whatever mixers you want. I personally think I go best with a shot of vodka, but I’m also pretty tasty raw,” She popped open the small bottle of vodka, pouring out a shots worth into her glass of former arm and mixing it with her straw before taking a sip.

     By that point, the other three girls had managed to finish their first round, and were now contemplating the drink in front of them. Paxton, for her part, looked on in horror, “Y-your arm!”

     “Yeah, what? Have you never drank someone else before?” Rachel asked.

     “N-no!” Paxton seemed energized for the first time since arriving on the show. “What do you mean ‘Have I never drank someone else before’? Do you do this regularly?”

     “Well, usually with people I know really well,” Rachel grinned.

     “But how does it-“

     “Magic,” Rachel explained, extending her fingers out and doing jazz hands.

     “But isn’t it dangerous, wouldn’t digesting-“

     “Would the bar let us do it if it were dangerous?” Rachel was doing her best to calm Paxton down, “Look, I’ll explain how it works.”

     “Basically all you need to do is drink ‘Juicy Core’, or really any other mixed potion that’ll melt you is used to put you in a liquid state. I chose the ‘Juicy Core’ because it only turns your insides to juice.” To demonstrate, Rachel used her one good arm to grab her remaining forearm, bending it impossibly to demonstrate her lack of bones.

     “When that potion finishes digesting, the effect the potion has been imbued with is also dissolved. Then it’s just really a simple matter of regrowing the limb.”

     “I’ve always wondered,” interjected Kacie, “What about if someone if fully drank though.”

     “Oh, that’s a wild ride,” Rachel grinned, clearly familiar with the situation, “It’s sort of like the limbo when you vanish yourself completely, but until the potion’s timer wear off, you’re also completely unable to process anything or will yourself back into existence.”

     Paxton stared, mouth agape, “That sounds horrifying! Why would anyone want to do that?”

     “I don’t know, to see what happens?” Rachel grinned.

     Dahlia, meanwhile, had taken a sip of the liquid Rachel, “Mmm…” she commented, “You taste like lemonade!” Paxton looked over in shock.

     “Yeah, that’s what most people tell me,” Rachel smiled, “I honestly think I’m a little sweeter than regular lemonade.”

     “Hm. Yeah, I agree,” Kacie said, taking her own sip. Paxton looked around the table, at the other assistants so casually consuming their fellow assistant, and the tall glass of flesh-tone liquid in-front of her.

     She lifted the glass tenderly to her face, giving it a sniff. From her look, the cogs could basically be seen turning in her head. It didn’t smell like Rachel… And it certainly didn’t look like Rachel anymore (other than it matching her skin color)… She put the glass to her lips taking the most microscopic of sips possible.

     Paxton’s face lit up in surprise. Evidently, the taste she had was pretty good, as she went back for a bigger mouthful. And then another. And another.

     Soon enough, everyone had finished their glass of Rachel, and Rachel held the spigot in the center of the table. “Well, who’s buying the next round,” she grinned.

     They obviously went around the rest of the table that night.

     Kacie’s drink ended up bringing along her bright blue tattoos, giving the drink a wispy blue color to it, and a nice fruity flavor.

     Paxton’s drink tasted like an old-fashioned creme soda.

     Interestingly enough though, everyone was shocked by Dahlia’s drink, Rachel included. It had a rich texture and profound flavor that none of them had really ever tasted before. The closest any of them could really describe it was that it almost tasted like someone had made a vanilla frappuccino in the other room. They all agreed that Dahlia’s tasted the best.

     At around 2:00 AM the girls staggered back to their hotel rooms, thoroughly intoxicated and missing much of their bodies.

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

& Question Corner &

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

To Contestants & Martin: “Oh, well I'm sure you’ll be surprised to see me, after all. I'm pretty excited for all of you girls, but also Martin. Anyway I wish you good luck with your first challenge and I'm excited to see your takes on it!” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Kacie: “So then you are going to be part of the show after all? How exciting!”

 Olive: “Dear, Let me know if there’s anything I can pick up for you while we’re in Australia. Maybe a nice box of Shortbread cookies or something.”

 Paxton: Paxton had the slightest hint of a smile on her face, briefly looking up at the camera before looking away again “…It’ll be nice to meet in person. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask you.”

 Rachel: “Ooh! You and I will have to go out drinking together! I know this excellent restaurant in Italy that has the finest wine imaginable.”

 Natalie: “Oh wow! Are you some sort of Assistant too? Is that why we’re going to meet up in Europe? Do you already have an Assistopedia entry? How many shows have you been in? Have you worked with anyone really famous?-“ Natalie continues to ask questions along this line of inquiry for quite a while. To spare everyone involved, her comment has been stopped here.

 Dahlia: “…Thank you for the kind words… I’ll be very happy to meet you.”

 Martin: Martin flashed one of his trademark smiles, “I guess you were too excited to keep the secret any longer, eh Andrea?

 I’m just joking. It’ll be great to have you on the show, and I’m very excited to meet you in person for the first time.”

To ANGA Production Staff: "I know it's not my place, but I want to see all girls in Europe, so I won't take a no for an answer. Hope you understand my standpoint. And don't even begin with rules, I know how easily it can be arranged.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Drake: “As unfortunate as it is and I totally understand your point of view, the contracts the contestants signed off on at the start of the season forbid them from traveling with us after they’ve been voted off. They don’t necessarily have to fly back home to the states (although we obviously provide them with the option for a free one-way ticket back to a US airport of their choosing), but unfortunately they’re not allowed to appear on the show again unless we invite them back.

 Again, I’m really sorry Andrea. I can assure you though that you will be able to meet all of the contestants that you missed out on during the last week of filming though.”

To Paxton: “Don't sell yourself short, I know of many discoveries that were made by accident, but the Wellsprings choose whom they will let, and it chose you first, I think for a reason.

I know of a young man, one of my Dad's school buddies, who found a wellspring like cave while digging out a practice theater for the magic troupe he was in. made him a very wealthy man overnight. I'm not saying you'll end up rich, but I just know something good will happen.” -Genie Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)

 Paxton: Paxton seems in just a good enough mood to properly address the camera. “I mean. I didn’t really discover the Wellspring though. People’ve known about it for a while, I just managed to trip into it before anyone else did. Olive wasn’t that far off from where I was standing, so I’m sure she would have found it if I hadn’t.”

 Paxton’s mood seemed to deteriorate once more, as she looked down from the camera, “Plus, it was an old entrance not really used all that much any more. I bet you it probably would let any low power user through…” Paxton trails off, returning to her normal demeanor.

To Kacie: “I took a listen to your music and I loved it, I play piano, and a few other instruments, myself, maybe we can have a jam session sometime, even if its just messing around.” -Genie Shchutter (@@James-MacCloude)

 Kacie: He he. Sure! If we ever happen to meet up, we could totally record some samples.

To Kacie, Natalie, and Dahlia: “I hear the Westfield Sydney is a great place to shop! Did you get anything? Any souvenirs?” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)

 Kacie: “Oh yeah! It was great!” Kacie pulled out a shopping back with the record store’s logo on it, “I’m planning on trying to pick up some local music to work into my act each week, so I picked up some Opiuo and some AC/DC. Oh! And I had to pick this up when I saw it,”

 Kacie reached into the bag, excitedly pulling out a white vinyl record sleeve. It had a monochrome picture of several mountains and an amp on the front “They had Men at Work’s first album: Business as Usual on Vinyl. My Dad loves 80’s new-wave, and these guys were one of the best acts of the time period, so I thought I’d pick it up for him.”

 Natalie: “Unfortunately, the book store they had was only a chain bookstore, so I already owned all of the books they had on the history of magical performances. They did have a copy on the ‘History of The Down Under’ though that I picked up!” She pulls out a hefty, hardcover book. A bookmark was present at about the half way point. “It’s got a ton of interesting stuff in it! Like did you know that the blue clay that makes up the majority of the Down Under is said to give off a slight amount of ultraviolet rays, allowing for residents to naturally produce the same amount Vitamin D as if you were standing under the sun for an hour? It’s really fascinating stuff!”

 Dahlia: “…I picked up some clothes.” Dahlia twirled around, showing off the form-hugging purple dress she had purchased the day before.

To Olive: “Jetlag is the worst. Especially with being on the other side of the world and all. I really hope it doesn’t affect your performance.” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)

 Olive: “Oh, I know honey. My family in particular has always suffered from horrible Jetlag. One time my cousin, Linda, flew all the way out to Scotland for her sorority sister’s wedding. The poor thing landed the night before and managed to sleep through the whole thing.” Olive laughed, fondly remembering the story.

 “Anywhos, you don't have to worry about me. That extra night of sleep has me feeling just fine.”