It wasn’t quite clear what strings Frankie had managed to pull in order to book the location for this makeshift week of the competition, but whatever the case, it was quite clear that she had some powerful friends in high places.
The Sydney Opera House was absolutely abuzz with action, as people began pouring into the gorgeously designed building. Against each crest of the waves of the two structures, the letters A-N-G-A were being projected. People were coming into the theater in waves almost as large as the structure itself.
On the inside of the theater, the audience was greeted to a strange site in the main concert hall. As this portion of the theater was not really constructed for the standard magic performance, rather than having a curtain set up to hide everything, there was instead an impenetrably dark, black mist completely covering the stage in a dome like fashion.
As the time ticked down for the show to start, Drake suddenly emerged from the mist, eliciting a massive round of applause, as he took a bow. “Ladies and Gentlemen!” Drake belted his greeting, waiting patiently for the audience to die down again. “Last week, after a shocking announcement, the lives of these six contestants were flipped completely on their heads, as our humble show had to scramble to get back on the rails. Tonight, we will see just how well we’ve managed to do that, with their team-based performances.”
“Once again, I must ask that we give a massive round of applause to the ever wonderful Penny and Jean, and the Amazing Ms. Frankie, without whom, such an amazing turnaround would not be possible!” Drake began clapping his hands, as out from the mist on stage walked the aforementioned assistant duo and magician. Penny and Jean were in some simple dresses of their favorite colors, their normal fun experimentation of body orientations put on hold for their more normal appearances of a catgirl and her multi-limbed lover. Frankie was wearing the same outfit she had been wearing when she first arrived nearly a week ago, that being: black top hat, white dress shirt, black suit jacket, rainbow cummerbund black stockings, and black high heels.”
The three gave some polite bows, before heading back into the void.
Drake smiled, “Well, without further ado, we hope that you’ll enjoy the show.” He similarly took a bow, before walking backwards into the void, the audience applauding as loudly as ever.
The black mist completely dissipated, leaving just the first set of performers on stage.
~~~
Kacie & Olive’s Performance
The scene opened upon a rather unusual site, the stage of the main concert hall having been transformed into an idyllic garden, with plush green grass, some bushes in the back, and a croquet set laid out, several hoops and croquet balls present.
The three performers were frozen on stage, waiting for the music to start. Tetra was wearing a blue ballroom dress the same color as her head, a white apron tied around it. She was holding onto a croquet mallet and lining up to hit a large fluffy orb.
Olive was wearing a large red ball gown with heart insignia’s on it and a little crown on her head. Her makeup helped give her face some unnatural contours that made the normally kind and sweet-hearted older woman look incredibly grump. She was holding onto her own mallet, which had a large red heart on it as well.
Frankie’s look was clearly inspired by the White Rabbit, two large white bunny ears poking out of her hat, and some adorable whiskers on her face. She was mid-checking her pocket watch, seemingly leaning on something that was conveniently hidden from the audience.
On cue, The first movements of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Concerto No. 1 in E Major began to play, and the three performers began to animate. Tetra and Olive would take alternate turns hitting their fluffy ball and moving about the stage, their hits lining up rhythmically with the music that was playing.
After about a minute of this, the two assistants were standing next to one another. Tetra was preparing her backswing, when suddenly, her mallet seemed to bend on its own, forcing her backswing to continue well past its original stopping point and swing all the way around to hit Olive on the head.
Rather than the skull-shattering that would have normally be expected, what instead happened was that Olive’s form seemed to compress down from the impact, her body stopping at about half of her regular height, her limbs shrinking to match up with her new height.
The music stopped completely, the sound of a boiling kettle being heard, as Olive’s face became a shade of red that had yet to have been seen this season. At the top of her lungs, Olive shouted, “Off with her Head!” Frankie, hearing this cue, stood up, grinning as she pulled out the item she had been sitting on: An Ax with a heart shaped blade.
As Frankie began to chase Tetra around the stage, the energetic portion of the song ‘Tea Party’ by Kerli began to play, Frankie taking swings and Tetra dodging them in time to the music.
Occasionally, Tetra would purposefully allow Frankie to hit her, lopping off a portion of a limb here, an arm there, until all that she was left with was one leg. She tripped on one of the Croquet hoops, allow Frankie to finally catch up with her and slice off Tetra with a single chop of the ax, holding the triangular pyramid up to the audience, which had an annoyed look on its face.
Frankie handed the offending head to Olive, who cackled maniacally, slow dancing with it as the music took on a significantly sinister tone, transitioning into the hard instrumental metal riffs of an instrumental cover of ‘Queen of Hearts’ by Saxon.
Tetra wasn’t completely out for the count though, as Olive danced with her head, the various parts of Tetra’s body that had been strewn about the lawn during the chase began to approach one another, and soon enough, she was whole once more.
As the music continued to crescendo, Olive holding Tetra’s head up triumphantly, Tetra’s body swung the mallet once more on her head, a large smoke effect occurring, as she completely flattened out.
The music cut off completely, and as the smoke settled, Frankie walked over, smiling, as she held up a large playing card the size of a large poster board. It had a picture of Olive’s upper half, mirrored in the place of the Queen of Hearts.
Frankie lifted the up into the air, where it began to slowly float in place, rotating and becoming shiny, as ‘Disco Queen’ by ABBA began to play.
Frankie offered her hand out to Tetra, who put her head back on, the two dancing a silly, choreographed dance, as the black mist reappeared once more, their final song slowly dying out as their performance faded away.
~~~
Rachel & Natalie’s Performance
Just as with Natalie’s very first performance, the set of three performers were standing center stage in very traditional outfits. Frankie was in the outfit she had been wearing in the introduction, her rainbow cummerbund replaced with her regular golden one. Rachel and Natalie were wearing identical cocktail dresses in differing colors,
“Hello everyone, tonight we’ll be doing a bit of a variation on an old-classic,” Frankie grinned, “So, might I present on its stage debut, ‘Sawing an Assistant in Half: The Natalie/Rachel Variation’.” Frankie grinned, as from either side of the stage, two PA’s wheeled out two rather non-standard looking big boxes.
Unlike the standard version of the trick, which had holes at the top and bottom for heads and feet respectively, these boxes were slightly bigger, set into the top of the box for the assistant to place their limbs into. Additionally, these boxes had a bit of a gap present that ran down the length of the box, intersecting with the hole for the head, and allowing the box to open more like a double set of doors as opposed to a coffins.
As the assistants climbed in, Natalie was already espousing some magic history, “So, most people may not know this, but the reason why sawing in half boxes typically allow the head and feet to hang free from the edges of the box is because it’s one of the few tricks from the classical era of magician performance where the assistant is lying down as opposed to standing up. However, since most vertical sawings such as our variation are performed standing up, the front facing body holes are much more useful, as they’ll also be useful in making sure our bodies remain centered inside the box!”
A new set of PA’s now came on-stage, carrying a rather comically large apparatus. It was a conveyor belt that fed into a buzzsaw, the variety they would normally use in saw mills, and at the end of which, was a rather large woodchipper. With some struggling, the PA’s managed to get both boxes containing assistants lined up on the belt.
“Well, no sense in holding it off,” Frankie grinned, flipping the lever that turned the contraption on.
Natalie (who was the first of the two on the belt), began espousing out more facts as her head slowly approached the sawblade. “Now, for the most part, log cutters such as this are used in mostly escape acts, but we thought it’d be an interesting inversion to create a trick where the artist didn’t escape. And actually, we’re also paying homage to the brief period in the 1970’s where automatic savings were all the rage-“ Natalie’s words were cut short, as the buzzsaw began cutting through her box, her mind scattering as the blade sliced through her forehead.
Rachel giggled, shouting over the hum, “Thank goodness! I thought she was going to be spouting off facts the entire time,” As the camera cut back to Natalie, the saw blade at about her stomach now, two separated tips of her tongue stuck out at the camera.
The buzzsaw continued its unyielding journey, finally making contact with Rachel’s box. As it did so, Natalie’s own box finally reached the woodchipper, little flakes ejecting out of it and onto the floor.
With Rachel now approaching the woodchipper, Natalie’s box had been completely eaten up and spit out. On the floor, a large pile of wood chips and green scraps (the only sign of Natalie in the pile) was gradually growing larger as Rachel’s box continued to be fed in, a scream of delight being heard from Rachel as the device evidently hit home.
With the last remnants of Rachel’s box gone, the woodchipper only spitting out sawdust, Frankie flipped the lever to turn the device off, walking over to the pile of wood chips and green and pink cloth straps. She idly mixed the pile with her foot, checking the rubble for any further signs of her two assistants, but also mixing the pile up.
“Well, I guess it’s about time we brought them back,” Frankie grinned, pulling out a black cloth with a flourish, she covered the pile of scraps.
As she pulled the cloth back up, two large cabinets suddenly appeared underneath completely restored, save for the fact they were now missing holes for their various limbs. She opened the door, and out stepped her two lovely assistants.
Each assistant was composed of exactly half of the other, the one on the left being the left half of Rachel and the right half of Natalie, while the right was their missing half. Because of the drastic height difference, there was a middle portion between the two which did a blending taper from Rachel to Natalie.
The two girls looked at eachother, giving themselves a nod and a brief hugs, before facing the crowd and taking a bow, the black void returning once more to cover them up.
~~~
Dahlia & Paxton’s Performance
As the black mist faded again, the audience was immediately met with a rather striking visual.
Standing on a pedestal in the center of the stage, her body composed entirely of purple marble, was Dahlia. She was positioned with her head resting against her right arm, her left arm crossed underneath her breasts, her face a look of boredom, as she stared, completely unmoving at the audience. She was wearing a marble dress that slid down to the pedestal and even slightly beyond it.
From behind the statue, Frankie and Paxton suddenly appeared. Frankie was dressed up as a full blown sculptor, wearing a little black beret and an artist smock with various carving implements. As she walked around Dahlia, her eyes were transfixed on her.
Paxton followed along behind Frankie as she circled the statue of her partner, focusing on Frankie instead. She too, had an artist’s smock on, but this one had significantly less instruments attached.
“Oh…” Frankie said, sounding distressed. “It’s hopeless! They’re coming for the statue tonight, and we simply do not have enough marble to complete it!” Frankie placed her hand on her forehead, melodramatically pulling it back.
“W-Well,” Paxton said, “We could try…” Paxton went over, whispering into Frankie’s ear.
Frankie smiled, “Paxton! You brilliant assistant of mine! Let’s get started right away! We may yet hit this deadline!” She screamed giddily, quickly walking off stage and returning with a large stage light on wheels. Frankie flipped it on, blasting Dahlia with the light (who impressively remained unmoving), and casting her shadow on to the stage in front of Paxton.
Paxton took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the effect she was about to do. She placed her hand onto the floor where Dahlia’s shadow was, focusing on the effect she wanted.
Surprisingly enough, Dahlia’s shadow began to shrink, it seemingly detaching from the statue proper and coalescing at her fingertips. She closed her eyes in concentration, as the blob of shadow began to grow up from the ground, parts bubbling upwards and outwards, forming into distinct shapes.
Within moments, Dahlia had conjured up an exact, to-scale, black copy of Dahlia’s statue form based on the focus of her shadow, the audience giving a polite applause at the impressive display.
Frankie walked over, saying, “Thanks Paxton. Now just hold on to it, I’ll try to make my changes quickly,” Frankie patted her on the shoulder, before approaching the shadow statue. Grabbing the right arm of the statue, she moved it almost as easily as though it were made of flesh, angling the arm outwards from her body.
The noise of grinding marble could be heard, as Dahlia, in statue form, slowly began to move until her body perfectly mimicked that of her shadow clone.
Frankie grinned, as she continued to make minute adjustments to the shadow clone. Making her neck a little longer, moving her other arm, spreading out her legs a bit, rearranging her dress. Each change made by Frankie was mimicked expertly by Dahlia, who acted so lifelessly, it was difficult to believe that she was in complete control of how her body moved.
After a minute, Frankie stepped back, admiring how she had oriented the Dahlia statue, but still feeling like something was missing. She pondered for a moment, before snapping her fingers, running back over to the spotlight, and placing her finger at the bottom of it, such that a large shadow was cast over the spot where Paxton stood concentrating, “Paxton, could you get that for me?” she asked.
Paxton nodded, keeping quiet as she bent at her knees, repeating the process she had done with Dahlia’s statue. Soon enough, a giant copy of Frankie’s finger in shadow form was standing upright on the ground next to Paxton, who was now visibly sweating from trying to maintain the two different effects.
Frankie quickly got to work on her giant finger, pulling out a tiny hammer and a chisel from her smock. She chipped away at her giant finger, the bits of shadow falling to the floor, which Frankie would then pick up and apply back on to the shadow in different locations.
Soon enough, after two minutes had passed and Paxton was beginning to breath heavily, she had completed her sculpture, transforming her shadow thumb into a perfect copy of Dahlia’s upper half.
She quickly walked over, attaching Dahlia’s upper half onto her hips, facing her front half, and grinned as Dahlia began her part of the transformation.
The marble directly above Dahlia’s hips began to bubble impossibly, slowly stretching upwards and outwards, as she modified her form to match her shadow, not a single sign of effort crossing her face.
Soon enough, the effect was complete, and Dahlia had became the work of art she had always envisioned.
From the waist down, she looked perfectly normal, but above the waist was now two copies of her upper torso, her marble selves embracing in an incredibly intimate hug, their foreheads pressed up against each other with their eyes closed.
The effect completely, Paxton dropped the conjuration, clearly winded, as Frankie and herself took a bow, the shadowy dome appearing once more to cover the stage in darkness.
~~~
Send-Off
With the final trick complete, Drake emerged from the void, “Well folks. That concludes our show for the evening. Normally this would be the time where I’d tell everyone to go out and vote, but first, I have an important announcement to make.”
Drake took a deep breath before continuing, "It is my pleasure to announce, that Martin Horn will be returning to the magician role for the remainder of the season.”
The shadows disappeared once more, revealing a very sheepish looking Martin. He looks much worse for wear than the last time he was seen on camera, his hair and beard disheveled, slight bags under his eyes, his mouth remained closed as he tried his hardest to smile. The audience gave a mixed reaction to this turn of event, some clapping and cheering for his return, others booing the decision. Martin’s mood seemed to worsen slightly, as his ears cherrypicked the booing from the crowd.
“Martin has promised us that an incident such as this will not occur again this season, and has explained his reasoning behind his decision. We here at ANGA humbly request that you honor his initial decision, and his decision to return, with respect and understanding.”
The dome reappeared, Martin looking thankful as he disappeared back under it.
“And before we say our true final goodbyes, another round of applause for the ever amazing Frankie! Who, without her help, I highly doubt this show’d still be on the air!” The audience went wild, Drake clapping along with them.
Drake seemed to be coming down from a high, as he said, “I’m afraid that’s all we’ve had planned for the evening. So now comes the most tragic part of the show. The part where you, the viewing public, votes out one of six lovely contestants.” Some light booing from the crowd caused Drake to hold up his hand, “I’m well aware of how much a struggle it can be at times. But it’s an unfortunately necessary component of the show. We hope you’ve had a great time watching, and Goodnight Everybody!”
Sorry, Voting is Closed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These questions were answered before the performances listed above
To Kacie: “Dancing... I guess I'll need that for my next act.” -Jeanne (@@quad2)
Kacie: “Don’t think you need to add dancing to your act, Jeanne. We mostly added it this time around so that Olive would have something to do on stage. Well, and I guess give me something to do on stage too than just stand behind all of my equipment…
My point being, don’t feel pressured into doing things just because I, or another person does it.”
To Natalie/Dahlia/Paxton: “I’ve always wanted to try one of those Fizzy Lifting Drinks! I hear they come straight from Willy Wonka’s own factory, though I sadly haven’t been able to find any around here…” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)
Dahlia: “…To float above the clouds… Going wherever the wind may take you~…” She closed her eyes, giving herself a hug.
Natalie: “It certainly was an interesting choice for the Sunmark Corporation to release the drink from the movie as an alcoholic one. I guess they wante to try an court the older fans with it. In any case, It was a pretty fun experience! I’d definitely want to try flying again!”
Paxton: Paxton blushes, “I had a great time too. It definitely was more my speed than the drink Rachel had me try last time. I might actually get it again one day…”
To David: “That’s a relief, I'm glad Martin has been found after all. I do hope things work out.” -Genie Schutter. (@@James-MacCloude)
David: “As do I. Unfortunately, at this point I’m afraid that the only person who can make sure things work out for Martin is Martin himself.”
To Drake: “I'm glad to see Martin has been found, I hope he can return to his duties very soon.” -Jacob Schutter. (@@James-MacCloude)
Drake: “Well, the plan is to have him return to his duties as soon as possible. But, as usual, things are completely up in the air. We’ve offered him his position back, but technically speaking he has until tomorrow to decide.”
To Kacie and Olive: “Looks like you two are working well together, it should be a great act to see.” -Genie Schutter. (@@James-MacCloude)
Kacie: “Well, it’s definitely different from what I’ve done in the past. I just hope people don’t get too mad at me for branching out.”
Olive: Olive reaches over, giving Kacie a hug, “Oh… it’s okay dear, I’m sure that the people are going to love it.”
Kacie: Kacie sighed, giving a brave smile, “Thanks, Olive. You’re really too kind.”
Olive: Olive laughed, “Oh, it’s really no problem at all dear. Let’s just focus on making tonight fantastic.”
To Paxton: “looks like you're getting it I see you've gotten stronger, keep pushing the envelope, but not too hard, I don't want you to get hurt. Hugs to you.” -James Schutter. (James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton blushes, “Thanks for the concern James… It’s really thoughtful of you~.”