After a rather uneventful afternoon the previous day, the girls had went to bed early, exhausted from having been waken up early the day before. Unfortunately for them, the pattern continued, as early in the morning PAs once again came to gather the girls at the bar portion of Mister E’s.
When they arrived there, they found Devon standing next to Drake and Martin. She had a youthful exuberance to her, looking absolutely stunning in the black dress she wore, a wide-brimmed black hat balanced on her head, a large pair of black sunglasses hiding most of her pale face. As she spotted the girls, her smile only widened, “Ah, Dahlings, it’s so wonderful to see you again~”
She walked over, her black heels tapping against the floor as she gave each of the groggy contestants a light hug. “I want to thank you all for the absolutely wonderful afternoon, yesterday. It’s probably been the most fun I’ve had in quite a bit. But now, we must discuss the matter of gifts.”
Devon lead the girls over to where three large, black presents tied up with black bows sat on a table. “So, the following pieces are part of a collection I’m working on around designing ‘Hats for the Headless’. These pieces currently aren’t available for sale, so I really do hope you like them dahlings.” Devon smiled, as she approached the first present, slowly pulling the ribbon, reaching into the box and pulling out a strange object.
“This one is for you Dahlia. I tried to pick something from the collection that captured your radiance, however I’m afraid I can only go so bright.” She smiled, as she pulled out what appeared to be a glass orb, Dahlia’s eyes brightening up as she looked at the foot wide sphere. “Martin, could you be a dear and disappear Dahlia’s head for me?”
“With pleasure,” Martin smiled, as he grabbed the empty present box off from the table, He placed the box over Dahlia’s head, the merged girl giggling as she was plunged into darkness. With a flourish, Martin pulled the box away, quickly righting it and placing the top of the box back on, retying the box and leaving Dahlia’s shoulders completely smooth.
Devon smiled, as she held the glass orb approximately in the spot Dahlia’s head would normally be. As she pulled her hands away, the orb hovered in place, beginning to fill with a purple fire. As the fire grew in intensity, it almost seemed like the glass evaporated away, leaving Dahlia with a small, purple sun hovering over her body. While it gave off a bright light, it was not unpleasant to stare at, and thankfully for everyone, it gave off no heat from it’s raging inferno.
“Now,” Devon turned her attention to Kacie, who had already removed her head in anticipation of her gift, leaving her neck on her body and causing Devon to smile, “Kacie, my dear, I’m afraid I don’t have anything my collection that couldn’t even dare to compete with your Tetra design. But I believe you will find my gift useful even when you continue to wear her.” Devon opened up the second of the gift boxes, bringing out a black choker. The choker had large metal spikes pointing outwards at equal intervals.
“Now, this might appear a simple collar, however, it has many unique features to it,” Devon smiled, as she pressed in on the spikes, the black leather of the collar suddenly stretching upwards, creating a zig-zag pattern across the topmost edge. Devon grinned, as she placed the new, much thicker chocker around the top of Kacie’s neck, the spiked edge giving it the appearance of a black crown sitting where her head should be.
“I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what the other forms are,” Devon smiled, as she took Kacie’s head from her, placing her in the black present and sealing it away similarly to how Martin had done.
“And finally, for Natalie, I’ve got something a bit more experimental,” Devon grinned, as she pulled out a glass mason jar from the last unopened box. Inside the mason jar, a black, inky substance. “Funnily enough, I got the idea for this watching last year’s season of ANGA,” she giggled, as Martin helped remove Natalie’s head in a similar manner to Kacie’s, leaving behind her neck stump as he locked away her head.
Devon opened the Mason jar, allowing the black substance to ooze out, the liquid spreading itself out to cover most of Natalie’s neck stump before seemingly hardening, taking on a latex-like sheen. “It’s a magically charged polycarbonate blend with enchantments to link it to the wearer’s desire. Go ahead Natalie, try thinking of your old head,” Devon smiled.
The strange liquid seemed to bubble, as it slowly expanded outwards, gaining a see-through like affect as it rapidly filled with air, taking on the approximate form of Natalie’s head (although, the features were drastically smoothed out). Despite it’s almost bubble like appearance, Devon was able to lightly wrap her knuckle against it, a hard, hollow plastic noise resulting from her little stunt. “We’re still working on giving it the ability to change colors as well, but for right now it’s still an excellent neck topper for any occasion,” she giggled a little bit, as the three headless girls clapped enthusiastically for their new gifts, giving the fashionista an appreciative group hug.
As their hug broke, Devon checked her watch, “Oh dear, it appears I must be off now. I’ve got a meeting with my supplier to discuss a bulk order. Now, feel free to take off your gifts if you need to dahlings, although according to Drake you’re all to remain headless until tomorrow morning.” Drake nodded his approval, as Devon headed towards the front door of E’s, “Well, ta ta for now dahlings. And I hope that you enjoy your gifts~” And like that the girls were once again left to their own devices for how they wanted to use the rest of their day.
~~~
Paxton’s Rehearsal
“Hey, Paxton. Great job yesterday,” Martin smiled, as Paxton walked into the practice studio at E’s. She was clearly distracted as she placed her bag down.
“Hmm? Yeah… Thanks,” Paxton sat down on the floor, untying and retying her shoes.
Martin watched her fidget around nervously, before finally asking, “Alright Paxton… What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing!” Paxton blushed, trying to look away from him.
“Paxton,” Martin sat down on the floor in front of her, staring at her face, and giving her his best warm smile, “How long have we been working together by this point? A couple of weeks? You know you have to let me in if I’m going to be any help.”
“It’s just that-“ Paxton started almost automatically at full blast, reeling her emotions back in and trying again, “It’s just… I don’t know… I thought I was going to be kicked off in the first week… and now there’s so many people who are rooting for me… and- and I still feel like… like I’m just me. I don’t think I’ve changed? But now I’m supposed to be the magician… And all eyes are on me to do something amazing, and I’m terrified I’m going to let everyone down,” some tears were starting to fill Paxton’s eyes, as she displayed her heart out to Martin.
Martin responded by saying nothing, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping at her tears, before placing the handkerchief in her hand. His voice was slightly choked as he said, “And I bet you hear that little voice in the back of your head saying when you screw up, everyone’s going to leave you?” Paxton’s eyes widened, as she gave a little nod, “Yeah… He can be a real dick sometimes,” Martin did his best to give a little chuckle.
“Paxton. I know what you’re going through. Trust me. I go through it every time I approach the stage,” He gave her a reserved smile, taking a deep breath, “Listening to others tell you that you’re good at something is easy. But proving that fact to yourself can be one of the hardest things imaginable. My brain still can’t register that in a few short weeks, I’ll be joining my idols as a World Class Magician.”
“But you’re a great magician!” Paxton sighed, “That’s why I’m so nervous! Because how am I supposed to fill in your shoes?”
“You’re not,” Martin smiled, “Because you’ll never be able to,” Paxton seemed crestfallen, Martin holding up his feet and cracking a joke, “Your feet are just way too small to fit these with any amount of comfort.”
Paxton face shifted from sorrow, to a small crack of a smile, to a frown, as she batted Martin’s feet down, “You jerk!”
Martin grinned, “Sorry. Couldn’t resist,” before taking a more serious tone, “But really Paxton. The purpose of this task isn’t to show that you could replace me. Otherwise the show would need a bit of a rebranding.”
Martin continued, “Magic tricks work best when the Magician and Assistant are working in tandem to amaze an audience. They both have vastly different duties, and I know plenty of people in the business who take for granted just how much work each side puts in. The whole point of this week’s challenge is to help give you that different perspective you might not know about, and to help remind me of what you all are going through when we perform together.”
Paxton nodded along, as Martin said, “I don't want to see Paxton the Magician on stage. I want to just see you, Paxton, my assistant, perform some magic, as you’ve done for the past few weeks, and get the rightful credit you deserve,” Martin smiles, standing up and offering her his hand. “Now, are we going to start rehearsal? Or do you still need a few minutes?”
Paxton wipes her eyes, sliding Martin’s handkerchief into her pocket, taking his hand and smiling, “I think I can manage.”
Martin smiled back, giving her a hug, "Great! Let's get to work then!"
~~~
Mister E’s (Evening)
With evening coming around, E’s was starting to fill up with patrons. Being a Wednesday night, things were rather less busy than they would normally be, the club at about half capacity, however, that didn’t seem to stop anyone from having fun.
The three headless girls had had a rather dull day. They were still able to see and hear, but without much in the way of easy forms of communication beyond text messages, it was hard to hold a true conversation. Each of them had done a little exploring around London on their own, each experimentally allowing their aura of ignorance to slip in order to gauge how the public felt. Their apparent displays of magic got some confused (and occasionally nasty) looks, but thankfully people mostly just kept to themselves as they walked along.
To counteract their apparent boredom, the girls had decided it would be an excellent night to go clubbing. Each of them was wearing a stunning evening dress, even Natalie, who seemed to be walking around more confidently in her dress, her rubbery head blown up to resemble a slightly see through top hat.
As they stood by one of the cocktail tables, enraptured via a conversation going on across their cellphones, a bubbly voice suddenly called out to them, “Hey girls!”
The girls turned, the headless ones waving as Carrie approached their tables, a curly haired brunette in tow, equal parts confused and embarrassed. “Fancy meeting you all here!”
“Uhm… C-Carrie… Who are you talking to?” The brunette asked, staring blankly across the cocktail table.
“Oh right. Do you mind?” She nodded her head over at the girl she had brought, the contestants acquiescing, allowing her to see them and causing her to squeak.
“Eep! H-how long were they-“
“The whole time,” Carrie grinned, turning back to the girls, “Anyways, it’s date night tonight, and since I knew most of you’d be transformed, I thought it would be fun to invite you along!” Paxton looked hesitant, as did the rest of the girls. “Oh don’t worry! Nothing crazy formal. We were actually only dropping by E’s to offer. We were planning on checking out the new topless bar that opened up.”
The brunette interjected, clarifying, “It’s a magic bar. They vanish your top half at the door… Oh, also I’m Tracy by the way… Since we haven’t met before…”
“Spoilsport,” Carrie stuck her tongue out at her, “But yeah. I’ve heard from some friends of mine that it’s a pretty fun time. Would you four be interested?”
The girls looked at each other, some texting going on between them, before Paxton spoke for the group, smiling, “Sure!”
The walk to the topless bar ended up not being that long, only around a half hour. What did take long was the hour long wait outside the club. They had formed a group chat with Tracy and Carrie in order to pass the time, texting about their experience with magic. Natalie had particular interest in what Carrie’s life was like being a sister to someone so famous as Lisa.
Eventually, when they got inside, they felt the familiar tingle of magic, as suddenly their upper halves completely vanished, their dresses now completely covering their newly formed stumps. The dance floor was absolutely filled to the brim with lower halves of all shapes and sizes absolutely losing themselves to the pop music being played. A few of the lower halves had beers sitting on top of their waists, but it was almost like they were magically attached, the glasses remaining perfectly balanced even as they swung wildly about.
Carrie was gracious enough to pay for the first round at the bar, the barkeep (the only person without a lower half in the entire building) starting up a tab for her, placing their drinks on them, the liquid magically entering their system as they ‘drank’ the contents. With a slight buzz they hit the dance floor.
The evening went along rather well, the girls having an enjoyable time dancing. At one point, a male pair of legs decided to grind a little too hard against Tracy, causing Carrie to kick them in the groin, but thankfully, that was enough to give him the hint to not do that.
~~~
Mister E’s (Very Late)
It was around two o’clock in the morning when the girls, slightly inebriated from their night of hedonism, returned to E’s, Carrie and Tracy heading back home after they made sure their new friends got back safe. As they stumbled into their bedrooms, something was immediately amiss. Their rooms were an absolute pigsty, with things thrown around their rooms wildly, their mattresses pulled of their beds. The most concerning were the rude messages carved into their bedroom walls, the paint flakes spread out everywhere on the floor. In each room the largest message was the same, ‘ANGA GO HOME!’
Drake seemed completely unfazed as he opened his door to the girls’ nervous knocks in the early hours of the morning. Whether it was from lack of sleep or his mental preparation for the worst, it wasn’t easy to tell.
In any case, it was going to be a long night for him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following questions were answered before the girls left for their evening of fun.
To Paxton: “Congratulations on winning the midweek challenge, you took my advice from last week quite literally. Well done.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Paxton: Paxton blushes. “Thanks Andrea. I still don’t feel like I really deserved the win, after all Natalie’s outfit was so stunning! But at the very least everyone seemed to have a good time.”
To the other girls: “Pretty amazing choice of themes, I liked all of them. Also hope you enjoy your reward.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
The three losing contestants responded with affirmations of enjoyment, and appreciation for Andrea’s enjoyment of their outfits.
To all girls: “Now thanks for telling me you are fine, but I keep my word true, one mention of help and I'm on the next flight to Heathrow. You girls are just super dear to me. -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Paxton: Paxton smiles, “Andrea, you really don’t have to do that. You’re dear to us all also, but don’t sweat it. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”
Dawn and Julia: Dawn pats Julia’s hand, “Don’t worry Andrea. We can stay strong together. The only place we want to see you again is during finals week and the after party.” Julia nods her head.
Kacie: “He he. I fear for the person who would dare to cross your path Andrea,” Kacie smiles, “while it would be nice to see you again, let’s hope that it doesn’t have to come down to something bad happening.”
Natalie: “Andrea, between the Keeper of London’s wife and the Samhein Girl watching over us, I’d be surprised if anyone would be dumb enough to try anything funny. Adding you to the mix would probably be overkill,” Natalie giggles, “But thank you so much for the offer. We’ll be okay!"
To Drake: “I see you relaxed a bit too, nice to see. Hope it stays that way. If not, you know what I can and will do. But putting that aside, can't wait to see you again. -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Drake: “It has been a little quiet around here lately. Maybe we’ve finally managed to pass whatever curse has determined to make this a rough season?
In any case. Don’t sweat it Andrea. I appreciate the offer, but ANGA is my show, and if anything were to go wrong with it, I can handle it. I’ve been doing okay so far. In any case, I looking forwards to seeing you again too at some point.”
To Paxton: “Good job girl you rock! I must say you looked stunning with out your beautiful head, though it would have been nice to see it, but I know you had to stick with the theme. still good work. I'll be in Milan on business at about the time of Miss Devon's show. So I can definitely see you there, or at the afterparty.” -James Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton blushes, “T-thanks James… I think we managed to take a photo of me in the dress with my head still on… I could send it to you… I-If you’d like that is…” Paxton blush deepens.
To the girls: “Great work all of you, you did really well, especially you Paxton. I loved how you drew the design you wanted, you're a really good artist. I used to draw very well my self, sadly all my drawings were lost in a fire. I'll have to get back into drawing sometime when things settle down here in Mageria, and I'm not so busy.” -David Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton blushes a little less, “Thanks David! I’ve found that I’ve been getting into drawing a bit more again recently. I’d highly recommend picking it up again! Especially since it helps me relax.”
The other girls share the appreciation for the sentiments of doing a job well done, but seem miffed at the fact that the rest of the comment is directed solely at Paxton.
To Drake: “What a lovely challenge, tell Miss Devon, I love her fashions and maybe I'll pop over for a visit sometime. And hugs and kisses to you Drakie. Muwahh!” -Genie Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Drake: Drake blushes, “I-I’ll make sure to pass on the message. Although you could probably just tell her yourself,” he laughs nervously, “But yeah… Um… Hugs to you too?” He blushes outstretching his arms, before stuffing his hands in his pocket. “S-see you later Genie-“ the video abruptly ends after he finishes his line, .
To Paxton. “Good job on winning the challenge, my brothers are right, you are super talented. And you look great headless, better than myself I'm sure” -Genie Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton seems a little offput by the comment, but still responds cordially, “T-thanks Genie. Although I’m sure you’d beat me in a modeling contest any day. You look like a goddess with all of your extra limbs and I'm... Well I'm just me.”
To Paxton: “I just caught up on all the episodes. And WOW girl, you've come a long way. Congratulations, My best friends the Schutters are right you do look good. I can see why James likes you a lot. My twins sister and I share the ability to take our heads off when ever we want, as well as divide at other places. We can even see from our body's perspective remotely, was that the same for you?” -Gwenn Welling (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton seems really uncomfortable at this point, with so much praise being sent her way, her mood is visibly saddened, “Um… T-thanks… Yeah… I had some sense of awareness… but it was like a black and white movie with muddled sound…”