The crowd of people looking to get into Shakespeare’s Globe Theater pushed out so far away from the building that they were threatening to push into the River Thames. An overhead shot of the scene showed off the Colosseum like structure of the open air theater, several winged non-humans fighting for space on the top of the building, carrying cameras in order to help provide bootleg streams of the event.
As the camera flew downwards, through the hole in the roof, it circled around, the massive crowd on the ground level were forced to stand up with how closely packed together they were, nonetheless beyond excited to be so close to the action. three levels of balcony seats (well, the first level was only ever so slightly elevated, so more like two and half levels), formed an equally excited circle of onlookers around the building, waiting anxiously for the show to begin.
As the camera circled around, it focused on the glorious wooden stage, protected from the weather by a gorgeous pavilion, the black smoke that had acted as a curtain in the Sydney Opera House once again protecting the stage from the watching eyes of the onlookers.
Just as the audience started to worry that maybe the show was going to start late, the black fog lifted, revealing Drake, alone on stage in his normal suit attire, the audience going mad, as the subtle whirring of several digital cameras focusing on him came from up high. “Ladies and Gentlemen!” Applause erupted almost instantly, forcing a loud cheer up through the hole in the ceiling and out into London. Several of the groundlings trying to be cheeky and reach up on stage, finding their attempts blocked by some sort of invisible force field.
“Last week, our four brave contestants were challenged with flipping the traditional magic act script. Tonight, you’ll watch in awe, as they perform amazing feats of magic upon our soon-to-be World Class Magician, Martin Horn.” More cheers, as Drake grinned.
“Of course, before we begin, let’s give a wonderful round of applause to The Keeper of London and his wonderful wife, for offering us lodging and the best protection available in London after that *ahem* unfortunate incident occurred a few days ago,” The camera followed a spotlight to a significantly less packed, and better equipped boxed balcony on the second row. From two slightly larger seats, which were covered in a nice layer of fine velvet as opposed to the pure wooden seats in the other balcony seats, stood up Sarah, who was wearing a black evening dress, and a man who must have been her husband and the Keeper of London, Stuart. Stuart was wearing a pinstripe tuxedo, had tightly tanned skin and curly blond hair. He gave a wave as the audience cheered, before the two of them gave a polite bow before sitting back in their seats.
“And!” Drake continued, “Of course, we want to thank the person responsible for helping arrange everything to make this week possible. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, another round of applause for the head of the ISAG’s UK branch, Lisa!” The camera didn’t have to pan far, as Lisa stood up nervously from her more normal, but still velvet covered seat in the exclusive boxed balcony. Behind her from the seats to her left and right Peter and Carrie applauded emphatically. She raised her hand giving a half-hearted wave and adjusting her hair, before giving a polite bow and sitting back down.
“We here at ANGA are strong supporters of the ISAG, so to see her help expand their reach and create a more global community of assistants is absolutely wonderful.” More cheering as the camera panned back around to Drake.
“Well, without further ado," Drake grinned, "How about we get the show started then?" Resounding cheers of affirmation echoed throughout the theater.
“Well, then. We hope you enjoy the show!” Drake said, as the veil of shadows once again fell over the stage.
~~~
Kacie’s Performance
The black mist slowly disappeared, instead being replaced with a layer of fog that billowed off from the side of the stage. The back of the stage had been set so that it resembled a forest,
Martin, in street clothes, trepidatiously walked along the stage, holding a flashlight and doing his best to appear nervous, when suddenly, from behind him, a voice rang out, “Hey!” Instinctively, Martin turned around.
From the mist, slowly a shape appeared, after a few seconds, it was clear that the shape was actually Tetra. Underneath her head was her body wearing a bright blue dress, two fairy wings tucked into her sides. She tutted as she looked over Martin, “You know, you can’t possibly hope to celebrate Lady Titania’s birthday party in that horrible old thing.”
“W-what?” Martin asked, clearly nervous and confused.
“How about this…” Kacie grinned, “I’ll give you a proper outfit to celebrate, and I’ll take that wretched old thing off your hands?”
“W-what?” Martin repeated, “Wretched old thing?” he glanced down, looking at his clothes, and lifting them up slightly.
“It’s settled then,” Tetra grinned, reaching up and popping off her head with ease, tucking it under her armpit as she did the same to Martin, plopping his head down on her body before placing her own head on his, “Titania’s party is just further up ahead. You can’t miss it,” She grinned, her body slowly fading away into the mist.
“Wait!” Martin shouted out, reaching to try to grab where Kacie was but only managing to find air. Martin looked down at his new female, fairy body, sighing heavily and muttering, “That’s the last time I trust my friends with directions,” before pretending to walk further into the woods.
As he did so, slowly a golden light began to bathe the stage, the trees in the background slowly parting, revealing that the entire time, they were covering the back half of the stage.
The stage now resembled a golden court, the fog clearing away to reveal a golden marble floor. Sitting towards the back, on a massive throne was Tetra. She was wearing a golden dress, however her head and tattoos still remained the same blue that she loved so much. Dancing around the stage were about four pairs of extra, similarly styled after fairies. The theater filled up with the sound of classical instruments (although, the particular astute viewer would have been able to tell that they were playing a slowed down version of David Bowie’s Life on Mars).
As Martin stumbled into this scene, looking around in awe, Titania noticed him, standing up and towering over him, “Ah… Hello lost traveler. It appears that you have managed to slip into my domain at a very fortuitous time. For it is my birthday today. Come, enjoy the festivities and be merry. For this day comes but once in a blue moon.”
“Ah, actually-“ Martin tried to start up, when suddenly, the music swapped tracks, and David Bowie’s Magic Dance began playing. The group of party goers cheered, as they split from their groups, dancing around the palace set.
As they did so, and the music went along, Martin found himself being pulled along by the music, his head showing a look of concern as his body seemed to move of its own accord. As the music progressed along, the fairy extras began to pull at each others body parts, swapping out some, taking others and simply attaching the extras. Martin could feel his head being taken again, passed along as though it were no big issues, his body being pulled apart and further distributed among the fairies. Even ‘Titania’ wasn’t immune to the festivities, her golden wings ending up attached to another, as she danced along with everyone else.
As the music died down, Martin suddenly found agency over his body again, patting himself down, he looked like a patchwork doll, with various mismatching parts of his outfit, and still noticeably female. Thankfully though, he had everything in the right place, which could not be said for all of the party guests.
“Lady Titania,” Martin shouted, the mood for the party souring as the music fell completely silent. “I don’t know how I managed to fall into this mess, but I have had enough!”
“What is wrong, dear child?” Titania asked, slowly walking over, “Was the music not to your liking.”
“No! The problem is, I’m not supposed to be a fairy!” He shouted, holding up his wings, “I was just traveling through the woods, when suddenly a fairy stole my body! And now it seems I’m even less me than when I started!”
Titania looked him over, looking deeply into his eyes before saying, “My apologies dear human. It appears that I have made a grave error…”
She clapped her hands, the music starting up again (this time a much more somber instrumental of Blackstar) “Here human… My apologies for the mixup. Drink this when you leave my domain, it shall return your humanity to you.”
“Thank you,” Martin said, “And for the record… You throw an excellent party.”
The set shifted, as the fog returned, resetting the stage to the forest it had started out as, the music slowly disappearing as the light faded away.
“Well… Here goes nothing,” Martin said, opening the potion he had been granted by the fairy queen, and taking a large swig.
At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but ever so slowly, Martin’s body began to adjust. The patchwork of his outfit began to fade away, his dress taking on a more universal blackness to it, as his body seemed to slowly diminish. Almost inhumanely, his head began to become more angular, his face flattening out, as the sides of his head formed a triangular pyramid. As he rubbed his body once over, bright blue tattoos appeared on his arms.
“Ah… Much better!” Tetra smiled at the audience, playing Let’s Dance through her loudspeakers and trotting around the forest to applause, as the darkness closed out another performance.
~~~
Natalie’s Performance
As the darkness ebbed away, Natalie and Martin stood in the center of the stage, Martin in his magician’s garb and Natalie in an emerald green dress. To the left of them, a large wooden rack resembling an X was set up. To the right of them, a rather intimidating looking contraption was aimed at the rack. “Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,” Martin grinned, as Natalie struck a pose. “Tonight, Natalie thought we would go for a bit of an unorthodox trick. You see, when most people drill into their assistant, they’ll typically only make one hole, or if they do make multiple holes, they’ll do so one at a time. Tonight, we’ll see what happens when you drill an assistant five times through at the exact same time!”
Martin gestured over to the large device, its purpose now made more clear. The center of the device appeared to be a large miner’s drill, the drill bit about a foot across at its widest, but it spiraled down to a fine tip. Around it, set up at the right dimensions away from the large primary drill in an X formation were four power drills, wires extending outwards from their base feeding into the large based of the mining drill, most likely so that they would all turn on at the same time.
“Well then, I guess there’s not much else to do besides get you all set up,” Martin grinned, as he walked over to the large X structure, wheeling it to the center of the stage.
“We could always talk about how they used to do this trick before electricity was invented,” Natalie said, as she took her place in front of the rack. spreading her feet wide and her arms away from her body, as Martin produced a piece of rope from his pocket, the end of which was still stuck as he started at Natalie’s feet, wrapping the single piece of rope around her left leg and looping his way up her leg slowly.
“Oh yeah! I imagine it doesn’t have the same amount of pizzaz when using a hand drill,” Martin chuckled, working his way down her other leg and wrapping a loop around her left ankle before working it back up.
“Well, it was certainly a lot slower, and apparently, it tickles a lot more than the electric version according to some accounts,” Natalie grinned as Martin wrapped the rope around her waist, the seemingly unending piece still unspooling out of his pocket. “But here’s something you might not have known. Did you know it’s been longer since the electric version of the trick was first invented than the time gap between the mechanical trick and the electric versions?”
“Really?” Martin asked, as he made quick work of working up Natalie’s arms, tying a loop around each of her wrists in the process.
“Yep! The electric version was first performed in 1890, while the earliest document version of using a hand drill on an assistant was 1818,” Natalie beamed, smiling at her opportunity to share the history of the trick, as the end of the rope finally popped out of Martin’s pocket, allowing him to wrap it around her neck with plenty of slack and make a little bowtie for her.
“Huh… That’s really crazy,” Martin grinned, as he made to wheel Natalie back.
“Uh… Martin. Don’t forget, you have to spin me around to show off that I’m really tied up,” Natalie stopped him.
“Oh yeah. Silly me,” Martin grinned, as he reset back to center stage, grabbing the X shaped rack and giving it a spin.
As the back of the rack was shown off to the audience, the audience gasped, as suddenly Natalie came into view, turning the rack back around to face the front, Martin now tied to the rack exactly as she had been. She gave a little bow, as the audience laughed and applauded the swapping of positions.
“Uh… Natalie,” Martin said, looking down at his predicament, “We seemed to have swapped places…”
“Yep,” Natalie grinned, “That’s typically what happens when performing an Assistant’s Revenge.”
“Oh, I know,” Martin said, “But I don’t think it’s that normal for them to swap outfits too.” He said, nodding at her. True to his words, he now was also wearing Natalie’s emerald dress (thankfully, adjusted to his size), while Natalie was wearing a tailored version of his own suit.
“True. But what’s wrong? You’re absolutely rocking my dress,” Natalie grinned, wheeling Drake over to where the X had originally started before walking over to the rather intimidating drilling contraption.
“If you say so,” Martin sighed, before grinning, watching excitedly as the large drilling machine slowly began to hum to life.
It took about thirty seconds to get the whole thing up to speed, but soon enough Natalie was slowly moving the device towards Martin. “Any last words?” She shouted out, over the roar of the machine.
“Yes! I-“ Martin didn’t manage to get them out, as the mining drill made contact with his stomach, causing him to break into laugher as it ate into him, the power drills entering arms and legs a little below his wrists and above his ankles at the exact same time. As the drill continued to work its way through him, little flesh tone colored shavings slowly fell to the floor below Martin.
As more of the drills entered Martin, their progress seemed to slow, the drilling machine only going a few millimeters at a time, until suddenly, from the back side of the board, the various drill bits emerged, the process rapidly speeding up and causing Martin to laugh even harder, pulling against his restraints as more skin tone colored flecks fell to the floor, along with some wood chips from the rack he was still tied to.
Eventually, the motor of the drill machine died down as Martin’s body pressed up against the front of the machine, the drills slowing down until they stopped entirely. It took a bit of wiggling, but Natalie was able to back the machine out of Martin, revealing to the audience his hole riddled body.
The holes on his arms and legs were rather small, only about half a centimeter thick, actually making it a little difficult to spot them from the farther away seats, however, the nearly eight inch hole in his chest (which tapered slightly to a five in hole in his back) was plainly visible, the audience applauding wildly as Natalie untied the bow, the various ropes around Martin falling to the ground instantaneously as she did so.
The two took the center stage once more, giving a bow as the darkness covered them once again.
~~~
Dahlia’s Performance
The black mist rose to Dahlia and Martin standing i the stage. Dahlia was wearing a purple, starry dress that looked very reminiscent of the one she had designed as part of that midweek’s challenge (although, minus the massive tail), while Martin was in his standard performance outfit.
“Good evening everyone!” Martin smiled, as Dahlia waved at the crowd, “Well, I’m sure you all know the theme for tonight’s performance and how Dahlia’s the star tonight,” Martin grinned impishly, as Dahlia smiled politely, “So… How about we change her into something more appropriate for the role?”
Martin reached over, eliciting an “Eep!” from Dahlia, as he plucked her head off her shoulders, levitating it above his hand, it slowly began to rotate, gaining speed, as her body stood less confidently from the spinning. As her head span faster and faster, it became more and more of a blur, the blur steadily beginning to glow brighter and give off a brilliant purple light.
Sure enough, as her head stopped spinning, it became clear that her head had been transformed from her regular head to the purple sun that she had been gifted as a punishment for losing the midweek challenge. As Martin placed her head back over her body, where it hovered directly over her lack of neck. She crossed her arms angrily, a solar flare whipping out a few inches, as Martin grinned at the crowd, “There. Now she’ll really be the star of the act.” His comment eliciting some laughs.
Martin went to walk towards the left edge of the stage, stumbling as he slowly lost purchase on the ground, “W-What?” He managed to get out, as he started levitating in the air, his body rotating to watch, as Dahlia’s transformed.
Firstly, she was beginning to drastically grow in size, her head initially starting out at approximately a feet in diameter, was nearly double that in a matter of moments. As she continued to grow, it seemed as though her lower half was being absorbed into her torso, briefly having the effect of leaving her the same height for a few seconds as they were absorbed the same rate she grew, however that didn’t last for very long.
Soon enough, she seemed to have stopped growing, her torso now the same height as the first row of balconies, while her massive sun head was nearly five feet across (but thankfully, the same dull light that meant the audience could look at it without potentially losing their eyesight). She took up the vast majority of the stage, Martin now hovering slightly above the audience on the ground. From behind her back, Dahlia extended an extra set of arms, causing her to almost look like a goddess on stage.
Martin gulped, “Uh… Dahlia… I’m sorry! It was just too good a pun to pass up!” Dahlia seemed unmoved, as with each of her four hands, she grabbed his arms and legs between four sets of thumbs and index fingers, and in a single move pulled them off in a single motion, Martin grinning as she did so.
With her upper right hand, she proceeded to rub the arm between her thumb and forefinger, the appendage bending unnaturally as she proceeded to ball it up. As it compacted, the seams gradually disappeared, as it seemed that his skin tone changed too, taking on a more orange, striped appearance. She held it in front of her sun, seemingly looking it over.
She gave a slight nod, Martin’s right arm now looked like a perfect copy of Jupiter. Flicking her index finger out, she shot the tiny planet out, the orb very quickly entering a circular orbit around the theater’s inside.
Her attention shifted to Martin’s right leg, which was held in her upper left hand. She grabbed the leg with both of her upper arms, easily splitting it in half, repeating the process of balling up half of it with her upper left hand, while her upper right rolled its part of Martin’s leg into a thin strand, which it she transformed into several thin rings. With expert precision, she placed the loops around the now yellowish orb, and soon enough, there was now a replica of Saturn similarly orbiting above the groundling’s heads.
With Martin’s remaining limbs, Dahlia seemed to grow impatient, using her lower hands, she simply placed them both into her lower left hand, covering them with her lower right hand, and when she pulled her hand away, the limbs had been transformed into copies of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune, which floated out of her hand to join the other mini-planets.
By this point, Martin had seemed to realize what was going on, as Dahlia delicately plucked his head off of his body, “What? No Pluto?” He joked.
Dahlia remained unmoved, As she used her finger to flick Martin’s torso, his body completely shattering into a variety of small brown pebbles, which spread out like dust in the wind to form an asteroid belt in the air. She then held out her lower hands to form a cup, Martin’s head slowly floating over, directly facing Dahlia.
“You know,” He grinned, “You look absolutely radiant like this?” If it was possible for a sun to roll its eyes, Dahlia would have surely done so, as she made a spinning motion with her upper right hand, Martin’s head copying what had happened to her head earlier in their act, except this time his head seemed to only change color, as his head compacted in size and gained blue coloring.
Once his head had stopped moving, Dahlia lightly lifted her lower arms upwards, the small model of the Earth that Martin’s head had transformed into going off to join the other planets in the smaller model of the galaxy.
Dahlia moved quickly to finish up the trick, her head floating away from her body to begin floating in the center of the little display she had created, giving off a slow spin. Dahlia’s giant upper half, still on the stage, grabbed at the hem of her giant galaxy dress against the ground, lifting it upwards in a singular motion, revealing nothing underneath. As the dress inverted, her arms completely disappearing, it seemed to instinctively fly out towards the edge formed by the wall of the second story’s balcony. The starry background that now encircled the model of the solar system really completed the look, the audience applauding at the display.
After about thirty seconds of hovering, Dahlia’s former dressed sprang off of the wall of the theater, As if a rubber band were snapping back into place. The dress (really more of a blanket now) landed back on the stage in a heap, and after a few seconds, Martin and Dahlia (both restored to normal, although now Dahlia was wearing a plain purple dress) climbed out from underneath, standing up and dusting themselves off.
The two of them took a bow, Martin holding his hands out encouraging Dahlia to take a second bow (which the audience increased their applause for), as the dark mist once again completely enveloped the stage.
~~~
Paxton’s Performance
As the fog disappeared, the audience could see that the stage had been stuffed with props. It was mostly just cardboard boxes, however there were also some stray objects of interest, such as a doorway with a star on it, a projector with a projector screen, a tricycle, a chest of drawers, and a mirror.
The starred doorway opened up, and Martin and Paxton entered, both of them wearing rather plain looking street clothes. “Thanks again for helping me clean out my attic, Paxton,” Martin explained,
“No worries, Martin,” Paxton smiled, “After all, this way you’ll owe me one.”
“Yep-“ Martin was interrupted by a cellphone ringing. He looked around, seemingly annoyed at the audience, before jumping slightly, reaching into his pocket and looking sheepishly as his phone buzzed. He looked at the number, “Uh… Paxton. Sorry, but I’ve got to take this. Do you mind getting started without me.”
Paxton looked slightly let down, “Oh… I guess.”
“Great!” Martin smiled, “And be careful, this place is pretty dusty. Boop,” tapping Paxton’s nose. As he pulled his hand away, her nose gave a little wiggle, before disappearing completely, making her face look a little funny. “Shouldn’t take me more than five minutes,” He said, as he opened up the star door again, disappearing from the stage.
Paxton cross her eyes, looking at the blank expanse of skin, her voice coming out as though she had a stuffed nose as she said, “Yeah… I’m sure it is.” She closed her eyes, her nose springing out of her face again. “Well… Goes I’ll just peak into a couple of these boxes to start,” she walked over to one of the unmarked cardboard boxes, pulling out a film reel.
“Oh wow!… ‘My First Magic Show’…” she read off of the label, “Sounds like it could be pretty interesting,” she grinned at the audience, as she took the film to the projector, hooking it up with ease and turning it on.
The projector seemed to have been perfectly set up to project onto the screen, as a black and white video began to play, a clearly much younger looking Martin stood up on a stage in a black tuxedo and black top hat, his voice came through the speaker on the projector with the same fuzziness present on old videos as he addressed the audience, “You see, this cabinet is designed so that-“
“Wait a minute… Why is this in black and white? Martin’s not that old,” Paxton said, Martin continuing to explain the concept of cutting someone in half as she stared at the video in confusion. She shrugged, “Oh well.”
She continued to watch the video, Martin finishing up his explanation and asking, “So… Any volunteers?”
Paxton grinned, “I wonder…” She said, as she walked up to the projector, placing her hand against the screen and concentrating.
As she did so, the Martin on screen seemed confused, as slowly, his body gained definition, stretching out from the screen and flopping to the floor. He stood up placing his top hat back on his head. His skin still an unnatural ghostly white, and his voice had the same strange fuzz as had been present when he was in the video. “W-Where am I?”
“Well. You’re in 2021, in your attic,” Paxton explained, her voice shockingly only a little bit strained as she explained, “I conjured you from an old video I found.”
“Really?” He said, “Well… I suppose you must be a very powerful magician then to be able to conjure me.”
“Magician?-“ Paxton blushed, “Oh no I-…” Paxton paused, the wheels in her head visually turning as she said, “Actually Yes! I am!” She grinned, “And actually, you’re not going to believe me, but in the future you end up becoming my assistant!”
“Really?” Martin seemed shocked, “But-“
“Oh, it took a lot of coaxing,” Paxton lied, still grinning, “But that’s actually why I conjured you up. It’s rehearsal time, and the present you is busy right now, so I thought I’d practice with you to warm up a bit.”
“Oh uh…” Martin seemed really conflicted, but eventually seemed to grow to the idea that Paxton might be telling the truth, “Well… I would but it would seem I’m horribly overdressed.”
“Nonsense,” Paxton grinned, “After all, you know what’s always hiding under top hats.”
“What?” Martin asked. Paxton didn’t answer, instead pulling off his hat, conjuring up two fluffy white bunny ears onto his head. She pointed up, causing him to look and jump slightly as he spotted the tips just in his field of view. He reached up, feeling the ears in his hand.
“See! You’re perfect for rehearsing with,” She grinned, she covertly wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand.
“I guess so,” Martin said, still feeling up his new ears. “What do you want to rehearse, uh…”
“Paxton,” Paxton grinned, “Well, you were in the middle of trying to cut someone in half, right?”
“Yes, before you conjured me,” Martin had stopped playing with his ears.
“Well then… I think that should probably be a good enough warm-up for today,” She smiled, as she pulled out two large cardboard boxes from the pile, setting them up on the floor making a makeshift table. She patted the tops of the box, “Alright, get on.”
“What!?” Martin looked nervously at the boxes, “No prop to hide the effect?”
“Nope,” Paxton grinned, “Now get on, I’m sure your present self is going to be back any moment.” Martin gulped, before reluctantly lying down on the boxes, the tops of which giving way slightly, clearly only supporting his weight thanks to the bulky nature of the contents within. Natalie looked around the room for a brief moment. “Uh… You wouldn’t happen to know if you store any blades or saws up here?”
“I didn’t even know I had a house of my own until a few moments ago,” the bunny-eared Martin said.
“Um…” Paxton looked nervous, taking a deep breath, saying, “Well… This should be fine then… Hopefully.” Paxton closed her eyes concentrating, as suddenly, the air above Martin seemed to vibrate slightly. From thin air, a large metal blade similar to a guillotine’s seemed to materialize, Paxton visibly getting more sweaty, her breathing more intense as she conjured a blade from nothing.
“Oh wow!” Martin commented, looking up at the blade, “Truly impress-“ he didn’t manage to finish his comment, as the blade fell downwards, cutting through Martin’s waist and slipping between the two cardboard boxes. Paxton stumbled, the blade disappearing almost as soon as it hit the ground, Martin’s conjured form vibrating twice before settling back down as she regained her concentration.
She did her best to normalize her breathing, as she slowly opened her eyes, seeing that she had managed to successfully cut Martin in half, “S-see…” she gave a laugh that transformed about halfway through into a light cough, “T-told you I was a great magician.”
“I’ll say,” Martin’s top half sat up, as he inspected the new skin on his waist, which seemed to have a TV static like effect.
Suddenly, the regular sounding voice of Martin rang out around the theater, “Paxton! I’ll be up in just a moment! Just need to grab a cup of water!”
“Eep!” Paxton said, looking over at Martin’s still conjured form. “Uh… We need to get you back into the video!”
“Oh? Really?” Martin said, sounding slightly disappointed, as Paxton grabbed his lower half, lifting it up and sliding it back into the projection screen like it were a window. “I was hoping I could meet my future self. Maybe ask him how long you two have been working together.”
“Well… Unfortunately for him, we have a lot of practicing to do, and I don’t need two of you distracting me,” Paxton smirked, lifting up Martin’s upper half in a hug. Just as she was about to slide him back into the project she paused, Tapping his nose and saying “This is for earlier by the way… Boop!” Suddenly, Martin’s nose extended outwards, taking on a form like an elephant’s trunk.
“W-What?” Martin asked, going crosseyed, as his new facial feature flopped around. Unfortunately his complaints fell on deaf ears, as Paxton hoisted him back into the video, rushing over to the projector and turning it off, just as the door to the attic opened up.
“Hey Paxton, Sorry for keeping you waiting. Let’s get back to rehearsal,” He said. Paxton looked shocked, as Martin’s upper half, complete with elephant nose and rabbit ears hand walked himself in, his lower half not far behind him, carrying a tray with two glasses of water present on it.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” Martin asked, going crosseyed once more, as the black curtain developed the stage once more, the audience applauding wildly.
~~~
Sendoff
For the final time that evening, the shadows arose from the stage, revealing Drake in all of his glory, his entrance timed just right so that just as the applause was beginning to die down, his appearance was the shot in the arm to keep it going. “Well everyone, that’s our show for the evening!”
Drake stood around, taking a pause as the audience cheered. He slowly looked around at the audience, a smile on his face as they quieted down. When Drake’s pause seemed to extend for an uncomfortable amount of time, some small chuckles of confusion began to worm it’s way through the audience.
Drake grinned, giving a small laugh of his own as he explained, “Sorry. I’ve just gotten so used to someone interrupting there that I left a little bit in case anyone wanted to try.” This time, he got a proper laugh from the audience as he continued.
“In that case, now comes the part of the evening which has consistently been voted as the worst aspect of ANGA. And unfortunately, I’ve got to be the one to deliver the message. It’s now time for you, the audience at home, to vote which of our four lovely contestants will be going home this week. But don’t worry, after all, this was the sort of nerve-racking tension the girls signed up for.”
“And whether we shall meet again I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take:
For ever, and for ever, farewell,
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then, this parting was well made.
Goodnight Everybody!” Drake said, the veil of darkness covering the stage once more, but not before Drake could get a quick bow in.
Sorry, Voting is Closed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following questions were answered before the performances listed above.
To everyone: “Italian is one of my favorite foods, and is a family favorite. I love going to Olive Garden when ever I'm in the States. Alfredo sauce is great for dipping. but the olive oil and pesto combo is good too.
Ooh, alright you've convinced me, it'll be an Italian night tonight.
Any way I'm glad you had a good meal, and also I'm glad those morons got caught. Have some great practices and do your best in the competition.” -Jacob Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: “Ooh! You should definitely stop by Tony’s then if you ever are in the UK! I got the Chicken Parmesan, and it was absolutely delicious! Definitely one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve ever been to!
Dahlia: “We’ll try our best. Enjoy your Italian food, Jake.”
Kacie: Kacie seems disgusted. “W-… Why would you go to the Olive Garden for Italian food? There’s almost always a better, more authentic Italian option available in most cities,” Kacie calms down a little bit, “I’m sorry… I just… don’t understand the mass appeal of Olive Garden.”
Natalie: “I’m happy they caught the Vandals too. I just don’t know how they could have thought that destroying our rooms and scaring us half to death would have helped convince anyone of their message. I hope the show will go well tomorrow too! I hope you like it Jake!”
To Paxton: “You've doing a lot better, Martin is quite right. I know what you have planned will be a sight to see. Hug to you. I'll see you soon.” -James Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton blushes, “Well… I just hope that it translate well to the stage… A-and… That you’ll like it,” her blush deepens, as she speedily finishes up, “It’ll be nice to see you again soon, James. Bye!”
To Drake and Martin: “I'm glad the perpetrators were found out, I'm glad there wasn't magic ancient or otherwise involved. Magic does have a bad reputation is some areas of the world. I myself know very ancient magics as well as the more modern stuff.
Anyway, I'm glad the incident is over and done with.” -Jasmine (@@James-MacCloude)
Drake: “You and me both,” Drake sighs, “I’m just happy that this didn’t balloon out of proportion. I think ANGA’s gotten enough negative press this season that it’ll be a miracle if we get a fourth season…”
Martin: “There’ll always be bad people unfortunately, and this just goes to show they don’t always have to be magical ones. The best we can do is to punish them appropriately, and move on without giving them any further attention. I’m just happy that the girls came out of this safe, and with the worst thing happening being giving them a small spook.”
To Martin: “I'm sorry to hear you didn't have the patience to learn some of the ancient arts. I know learning them can be stressing too, but well worth the effort, as they can allow you to do effects that would normally blow out your magic reserves. Or enchant an object to do a specific task that would otherwise be too difficult. I myself was first schooled in the ancient ways, and I must confess I do like what you do better.” -Morgana Pendragon (@@James-MacCloude)
Martin: “Oh trust me Morgana. I know exactly what and why witchcraft was created. It was definitely a very intelligent work around from an era where the average magic reserves was easily one hundred times smaller than the where we are now. So, it really just seems silly to me to do all this preparation to achieve an effect that can usually be accomplished nowadays at the expense of just a little bit more reserves.
Of course, that’s not a dig against Witchcraft! There are still a number of effects that are completely exclusive to it that are still worth studying, like low-cost imbuing. It’s just mostly not my cup of tea,” Martin smiled, “Although, it is nice to meet someone else raised with one of the classic branches of magic. My Dad actually taught me Sorcery growing up as my first branch of magic. I’ve found that most people I’ve met taught with one of the classic branches usually have a better appreciation of the sort of magic we can do nowadays.”