“Good morning girls!” The chipper voice of Howard once again echoed through the two finalist’s bedrooms at eight in the morning, “Please get dressed and make your way to the Rooftop stage for your midweek challenge! Make sure to dress nicely, while we’ve got some cooling units up there, it’s going to be another scorcher!” The girls sighed, knowing that today was going to be a wasted day for them, as they got dressed up in light colored shorts and t-shirts.
As they boarded the golden elevator to the roof, both of the girls stepped out, apprehensive of what they might find.
~~~
Rooftop Stage
What they found ended up being a rather relaxed scene. The curtains to the rooftop stage were open, the stage itself completely bare. Sitting in front of the stage was a row of about twenty or so chairs, and mingling around the rooftop itself was a rather sizable group of people.
There were some recognizable faces mixed in the crowd. For starters, in one offshoot Howard and Martin were talking to a rather tall man and a short woman, the short woman animatedly telling them something. In one corner, Sable and Annette were talking to someone who would be familiar to watchers of the previous season, Nora, Howard’s daughter. She was looking good, her ghostly pale skin having tanned ever so slightly so that she wouldn’t reflect the glare of the sun anymore from looking at her. She was wearing a white sundress with a black hat, and had her arm wrapped around a rather nervous looking man’s waist. He was wearing a gray suit, and his scraggly brown hair jutted out at odd angles.
Further along in the crowd, Drake was talking to Paige, a sandy blond haired man and a rather stressed looking centaur. Drake would say something, and then Paige would point on her clipboard, the centaur nodding along.
“Ah! Excellent! You’re here!” A familiar sounding voice beamed, as a bald bearded man approached them. This person was none other than David Angel, the magician from the very first season of ANGA. Behind him, the small group he had been talking with, his assistant and winner of the first season, Jill, and an African American couple, stopped talking so that they could watch David Angel talk to the girls.
“It’s so good to finally meet you two under better circumstances,” David smiled, giving each of the finalists a hug. As he parted ways, he looked down at his watch, “We’ll have plenty of time to talk later. Here, why don’t you two take a seat? The show’s about to start,” he grinned, turning around to head towards the stage.
“Wait. Show?” Paxton asked after him.
David swiveled on his feet, looking at the two of them as he said, “You’ll see,” giving them a wink before turning back around and continuing on his way. As the small crowd of people saw David heading towards the stage, they began making their own ways to the empty seats.
The central seats were conveniently left open, with Howard to the right of the girls, and an empty seat to their left, which was presumably where David would be sitting, as Jill sat in the seat to the left of it. As David walked up from stage left, the small audience applauded politely.
“Good morning everyone,” he smiled, “Today, we’re going to be doing something that Howard and I hope is a change for the better for how ANGA may run in the future. You see, while the midweek challenges are an excellent staple of the series, it simply does not make sense to have one for the final week of the competition. The girls have enough on their plates already, and to remove the opportunity to rehearse from one of them is simply too unfair.” David began pacing around the stage slightly.
“Of course, that did put us in a bit of a bind, as the format of the show demands that a vote be held and some magic to happen… So, Howard and I decided to do something that we absolutely love to do for our tours. Feature some young, up and coming magicians and give them the chance to perform in front of a much larger audience,” David grins.
“The rules are rather simple, keep it limited to one quick trick, although multiple effects may happen in the same trick. The winner will be decided by a viewer poll, and what they’re competing for will be revealed after the last performance has happened,” David smiled cryptically.
“In any case, and without further ado, may the first ever ANGA Open Exhibition begin!” David smiled, taking a bow as he hopped off the stage, taking his seat next to Jill and the finalist.
~~~
The Amazing Derrick
From the very right end of the seats, the centaur girl and the sandy-haired man stood up, walking over to the nearest set of stairs that lead to the backstage area. After a few moments, country music began to play over the loudspeaker, and from stage left, the centaur woman came barreling out onto the stage in a full sprint. Across her upper half, she was wearing a sequined black dress with several strands that flowed through the wind behind her, much like her curly brown hair. Meanwhile, the sandy-haired man was riding the centaur bareback, maintaining perfect upper balanced despite not holding onto anything. Hewas wearing what could best be described as cowboy professional. He wore black boots, clean brown slacks, and a mauve button down with a brown leather vest over it.
As the centaur approached the other side of the stage, she veered right, the cowboy effortlessly managing to remain on. On her return trip across the stage, the centaur bent down suddenly, her horse body tipping forward, allowing for the cowboy to perform an impressive act of athleticism, as he pressed down against her equine half, jumping up just enough to plant his feet on her back, and with some swinging of his arms, he suddenly found himself surfing his partner as she performed another lap around the stage, earning some whistles of approval.
On the third pass, the cowboy readied his knees, and just as the centaur ran by center stage, he performed a backflip, landing perfectly and sticking his hands up in the air, turning around to face the audience with a proud smile on his face. “Hoowee! Howdy audience!” The cowboy welcomed the audience in an excited southern drawl. “My name’s the Amazing Derrick, and this lovely mare here,” He smiled, holding out his hand as the centaur slowed down. She seemed slightly winded as she trotted over to stand next to him, accepting his hand which he raised into the air, “Is my assistant, Ella.”
Ella smiled at the audience, giving a little bow with her front legs and responding with her own southern accent, “It’s a pleasure to perform y’all today!”
Derrick smiled, as Ella walked off stage to grab their prop, explaining some facts about them, “We’re a Texas-based show mostly. So usually we’ll stick to the classics for our audience, maybe do a bit of rodeo work here or there. Tonight, me and Ella are gonna be performing a trick for y’all that always get the attention of the fellas at the bar.” From the side of the stage, Ella trotted back in, carrying a small one foot by one foot box in her hand. The box had a dark brown varnish, and in the corner of it were the three small logos, two of them were eyes, one more feminine than the other, and the third was a horse’s tail.
“We like to call this trick, Horsegami,” Derrick smiled, accepting the box from Ella.
Working quickly, Derrick managed to expand the box outwards by sliding out the panels, more box seemingly coming out of nowhere. Soon enough, he had a significantly larger box about the size of a small trailer, easily tall and deep enough for Ella to fit in. He opened the front of the box like a garage door, pulling it up and back into the box.
As Ella walked backwards she waved at the crowd, “See you in a bit everybody~” As soon as she had back up, Derrick reached up pulling the front of the box shut and plunging Ella into darkness. He grinned, walking to the back of the cabinet and pushing it forwards, until it was roughly the thickness of a normal person.
“Now, since we’ve got a rather smart audience,” Derrick smiled, “I’ve been tinkering around with the act, and have tried to convince Ella multiple times to come out and see what us two footed folks have to deal with,” Derrick grinned, as he pushed down on the top of the box, the roof caving in about two feet before locking into place
From inside the box, Ella’s voice shouted out, “Now Derrick, I’ve already told you. Satyr is just not a good look on me,” Derrick pushed the width of the box inwards, the box now resembling a rectangular box with the height being about three feet, and the length and width being about one and a half.
Derrick rotated the panels on the box, occasionally sliding a few pieces around, as he continued to whittle away at the boxes dimension, “And I keep telling you darling, you’d look great in anything.” Derrick laughed, the box now roughly the same dimensions as when it had started.
Derrick wasn’t finished there though, taking the box in his hand and rotating it like a rubik’s cube, sliding progressively smaller panels together until finally, he ended up with a box that was about five inches by five inches, with a thickness of only about an inch. He whistled, “Well… It think finishes it up, why don’t we check out our handiwork?”
Grabbing the front of the box, he flipped the front face forwards, revealing Ella’s scrunched face pressing up against the boundaries of the box. She did her best to smile, “Ta da!” she shouted out, blowing a kiss to the audience.
Derrick couldn’t help but smile, the close dimensions of the box lightly pushing against the edges of her face, “How’s it in there Ella?”
“A little tight,” Ella admitted, doing her best to look up at him.
“Well, let me just fix that,” Derrick grinned, flipping the back panel open. Suddenly, like a rocket, a braid of hair shot out, the top of which was still just visible over the top of the box, while the rest could be seen hanging below it. Derrick turned the box around, revealing to the audience that the braid of hair was her tail, brown, furry flesh taking up the rest of the backside of the box. “How’s that?”
“Much better,” Ella cooed, sounding relieved as she was turned around once more to face the audience.
“Alright,” Derrick grinned, “I think our time’s about up, so how abouts we get you set back to normal?”
“Sound good to me!” Ella smiled, as Derrick unceremoniously flipped the panel back over her face, doing his best to stuff her tail back into the box before closing the back panel too.
Derrick worked in reverse, sliding panels outwards once more as the box got larger and larger. Soon enough, the box had returned to the original dimensions it had been when Ella entered.
As Ella stepped out, the audience laughed at her transformed state. She looked like the inverse of a centaur, a shapely human body in a full, black billowing dress stepping out, her head replaced with a brown horse’s head. The horse’s head furrowed it’s eyebrow, shaking its head in anger and pointing menacingly at Derrick.
“O-Oops,” Derrick smiled playfully, in a manner to clearly indicate that he knew this was going to happen, “It appears I accidentally had the last panel upside down… Just step back in Ella,” Derrick grinned, Ella rolling her eyes as she did so. Derrick closed the door, placing both of his hands on the front panel and rotating it 180 degrees.
Just as he had finished doing so, the entire box collapse, reveling Ella, whole once more and completely restored, smiling at Derrick. “Thanks Derrick,”
“Don’t mention it,” Derrick smiled, before turning back, “And thank you all for being a wonderful audience!” Ella stepped forwards, the two of them raising their hands and taking a bow.
~~~
Warren
Derrick picked up the various pieces of scrap wood from his trick, as Ella walked backstage and slowly worked her way down the staircase. From the audience, the African American couple that David had been talking to stood up, walking to the opposite staircase and heading backstage.
They didn’t walk out as explosively as Derrick and Ella had, electing to simply come out on stage. The man, who had his hair tied up in braids and was wearing a black suit, was wheeling in a metal box on stilts, roughly big enough to fit a torso inside of it. The front of the box had a gridline pattern on the front. The woman was wearing a red leotard, and was smiling out at the audience.
As the two took center stage, the man rolled his hand, a microphone magically appearing in it. “Uh… Testing… One, two,” He said rather reservedly, nodding his head at the satisfactory leveling, “Good morning everyone. My name is Warren, and this is my sister and assistant, Tiara.”
Tiara was about as soft spoken and understated as her brother, “Hello~” she politely waved. Warren opened the box up for her, revealing the inside to be just as plain as the outside, the wholes where the assistant was expected to put her arms, legs, and head slightly more obvious now, as Tiara slipped into the box, wearing it a bit like a too large shirt.
As Tiara got herself situated, Derrick quickly ran offstage, returning with a small table with two objects on it. The first was rather obvious what it was, it was a large metal baking pan. The other object was an oddly shaped piece of metal. It was a metal grid-like pattern, although the grid wasn’t always perfect, with some walls seemingly missing at random, leaving odd-shaped patterns in the structure.
He held it up, his face remaining neutral as he calmly told the audience, “Now, we came up with this trick, because we got a bit tired of seeing the same old divisions done in every slicing trick. We like to call this, ‘The Human Jigsaw’” Derrick put down the microphone, carrying the tray to where his sister stood, holding up her arms in a pose.
Warren lined the piece of metal up with the grids on the front of the metal box, their purpose becoming clear as he pushed the two together, the metal easily sliding in. Tiara’s face contorted slightly as the metal clearly bit into her. Warren smiled as he finished pushing the rest of the metal into the box, before opening up the lid
The metal had clearly pushed clean through his sister, individually wrapped pieces of her body fitting compactly in each of the oddly shaped components. Warren, in his calm demeanor explained, “Normally, at this point, I’d pretend to knock into the cabinet and have the pieces tumble everywhere, and I’d ask members of the audience to help me put the jigsaw back together. But since we only got limited time, I’ll restore her a different way.”
Grabbing the metal baking pan off the table, he placed it in front of the prop that still held his divided sister. Grabbing the back, he ever so gently tipped her forwards, the various chunks of her body sliding forwards, gathering into the pan, where it could be seen that her leotard had grown around each of the chunks, leaving no flesh exposed. Warren grabbed a few of the thinner strands of his sister, placing them in her idle hands. “Here,” he said, “Roll these up for me.”
Tiara nodded, getting to work doing her best to roll the strands of flesh up into a ball, as Warren got to work on the rest of her body. Like dough, he roughly kneaded the various rectangular chunks, slowly causing them to lose their definition as it all formed together into one lumpy, red nylon clad piece. As it lost more definition, he would occasionally lift it off of the table, rolling it up in his hands and slapping it hard against the table, causing his sister to jump slightly each time.
Eventually, Warren and Tiara had some rather smooth looking dough, and after combining the lump his sister had been working on, he was able to line the baking pan completely. “Now,” He explained, “We bake it for ten seconds at 5000 degrees.”
Warren smirked, as he balanced the baking sheet on one hand. The palm of his hand seemed to grow brighter, and soon enough a massive flame burst out of it, extending well beyond the edges of the pan and heading skywards. As the heat continued, through the flames, the glimpse of something rising could be spotted in the pan, it’s red color general blackening.
As the flame died down, the audience applauded, as the lump of flesh that had been used to line the backing sheet had transformed back into Tiara’s torso, the red leotard she had been wearing replaced with a black one.
Warren pulled out the metal grid he had inserted, placing Tiara’s torso back inside and closed the door. When he opened the door once more, Tiara stepped out, giving her brother a hug and saying, “Thanks Bro~”
Warren meanwhile, was doing his best to not laugh. When Tiara saw his face, she looked down, realizing that he had placed her torso on upside down, her breasts hanging near her legs. She looked up, a fire in her eyes clearly indicating that she was going to kill him. “Warren…”
Luckily, Warren already got a head start towards the backstage area.
~~~
Kathryn the Great
As Tiara exited from the backstage area, she had been completely restored to normal. Warren was rubbing the back of his head, a bruise already forming. “I think it’s our turn sweetie~” The short woman who had been talking to Howard and David earlier in the morning stood, up, lightly pulling on the arm of the tall man that had been standing with her.
The tall man smiled as he stood up, bending down and giving her a little kiss, “Of course, dear~” They didn’t bother heading towards the sides of the stage, instead heading towards the edge of the stage. The tall man easily scooped his arms, sweeping the woman up in his arms and helping her up onto the stage.
She dusted herself off, standing up and smiling at the crowd as the tall man awkwardly climbed up the edge himself. She was wearing “Hi everyone! My name’s Kathryn the Great! And this lovable big guy is my assistant and partner for life, Clark!” Clark had finished standing up, revealing the massive height difference between the two, her head barely coming up to the bottom of his chest as she gave him a massive bear hug.
He kissed her forehead, before scuttling off to the backstage area. “Tonight,” Kathryn smiled, “I’m going to be doing one of my favorite transformations on Clark~ While it’s great to have a husband so much bigger than you to get things off the top shelf and open up all your stuck jars of pickles, sometimes it’s better to have someone you can cuddle completely like a teddy bear~”
As Clark walked back out on stage, wheeling in a box with an accordion frame connecting two stocks for heads and feet. Evidently in his short time gone, he had quick changed out of his street clothes, eliciting a couple of wolf whistles from the more immature members of the audience (mostly Howard) as he walked back in a tight, green leotard. As he wheeled the rack to where Kathryn was standing he waved his hands around to show it off.
Kathryn, for her part, did her best to not appear upset, whispering “Umm… Honey… This isn’t the big rack.”
Clark looked down, blushing, as the frame was clearly not meant for a man his size. “Shoot… Sorry sweetie. I must have packed the wrong one.”
Kathryn wanted to be mad, but seeing her husband embarrassed clearly brought out her more affectionate side, “It’s okay, dear, we’ll just have to improvise a little bit,” She winked.
Kathryn turned back towards the audience, “So, firstly, I’ll be having my assistant stretch me up,” Kathryn grinned, “After all, since we’re making him smaller to cuddle with, we might as well go ahead and make me bigger to increase the fun~” Kathryn stepped into the frame, Clark fumbling slightly as he did his best to close the stocks on her head and feet.
“And now~ I grow!” Kathryn smiled, as Clark immediately caused her head to plummet, her head lying at about waist height before stopping, “Wrong way honey~” She smiled, her voice filled with sweetness despite his mistake.
“Sorry~” Clark grinned back, bending down and giving her another kiss, before grabbing the stock that held her head and moving it upwards, stopping it just as it came to eye level with himself. At her instruction, he opened the stocks, and out came the much taller Kathryn.
While she was taller, her limbs had not grown any thicker, transforming her slightly thicker frame into an elegant and dainty build. Her street clothes had similarly transformed like Clarks, her shirt being replaced with a frilly button down that flared up at the end of her arms, while her pants were replaced with black stockings.
She smiled as she walked over to Clark, giving him a much more equal hug and kissing him on the lips, the show forgotten for a moment as she whispered, “You know~ Maybe later we can-“ She was interrupted by Clark coughing, reminding her that they were currently performing.
“Right!” Kathryn’s eyes went wide, “Just giving you a good luck kiss. Because now it’s your turn~”
She helped Clark into the still extended accordion style rack, easily and effortlessly closing the stocks around his head and feet. “Any last words as a tall person?” She grinned.
“Yes: The weather is exactly the same for tall people as it is for short people,” he said matter of factly.
Kathryn couldn’t help but giggle, as she grabbed both stocks, bringing them closer and closer together. As she did so, Clark’s face scrunched up slightly as the magic took its effect, Relief crossing his face as the occasional audible ‘Pop!’ sounded out from a part of him disappearing (an audio cue the couple had installed to make it easier to know which points to open it up and let the transformed walk around).
Eventually, the two ends of the stock met, and Clark was left dangling in the air, his feet directly below his head. Kathryn had a mysterious grin, as she reached behind her back, producing a large white feather, holding it up for the audience but not allowing Clark to see it. “Oh honey~” she said in a sing song voice, “Remind me again… Are you ticklish?”
Clark’s face paled, “Oh no~ Please~” he said in mock protest, “A-Anything but that~!”
But it was already too late, with a battle cry of “Tickle Torture~!” Kathryn went to work, tickling Clark’s exposed feet, causing him to laugh hysterically.
After doing this for a bit, Kathryn disappeared the feather once again, finally undoing the latch and pulling Clark out of the device. Just as everyone had suspected, he was now nothing more than a head attached to a pair of feet. Kathryn smiled, smothering him against her chest as she said, “You’ve been a great audience, thank you so much for indulging us!” before pulling Clark away, the reduced man doing his best to give a bow in his altered form.
~~~
Nudd
Kathryn held the drastically shrunken Clark to her chest, giggling all the while as she stepped down off the front of the stage. From the far left end of the seating, Nora stood up, the shy man shakily standing along besides her, taking deep breaths as they headed towards the backstage area.
As he reappeared on stage, his outfit had changed from his street clothes. He was now wearing a dark red cape that completely obscured his body. He still looked a little nervous, but those jitters went away almost as soon as he stared up at the audience. “Ladies and Gentlemen. Tonight, I will be revealing the untold truths to you. You see, My name is Nudd, and I-!”
Nudd dramatically flings his cape back, reveling his outfit to the audience. It was an incredibly nice looking, two tone, pinstripe suit. The outfit was split vertically down the center, the right half of his outfit was a bright red, while the other half of his outfit was a dark, vibrant blue. The inner lining of the black cape that he wore was a majestic purple. He flicked his hand outwards, producing a two-tone top-hat in the exact same color scheme, placing it on top of his head
“-Am The Magnet Wizard!” He spoke the line with an impressive amount of confidence and force behind it. He held his hands outward, now clad in silver gloves, arcs of lightning soaring through the air between them.
“Let me ask you a question, do you know how magnets work? Really work? Not the lies fed to you by a scientific community, hell-bent on silencing the truth? They do not want you to know the deep arcana that runs through the metals of the earth, because they do not want you to be able to harness it.
Tonight, assisting me in displaying just a fraction of the power of the Magnes Arcana, I have my lovely assistant, Nora Weiss!” Nudd held out his hand towards stage left, closing his eyes and concentration.
From offstage, Nora slowly was dragged on stage. She was wearing a simple dinner gown in a similar, but different two tone style to Nudd, the top half of her dress being red, while the bottom half of her dress was blue. It was clearly her upper half that was being dragged along, Nora giggling the whole way over as she was involuntarily pulled, waving at the audience.
As she reached center stage, Nudd reached out towards stage right with his other arm. From offstage, a standing, two tone box in a similar but opposite color scheme to Nora was pulled out on stage by the same magnetic force.
With his assistant and his trick present, Nudd crossed his arms and closed his eyes, “Nora. Please step into the prop.”
Nora couldn’t help but smile, bowing as she said, “Of course, O’ mighty Magnet Wizard~” She opened the box up, climbing inside. The prop was not all that different from the box that Warren and Tiara had used, fitting around her a bit like a box dress.
Nudd, for his part, continued to remain in character, saying, “What you are about to see may shock and appall you. The more squeamish members of the audience may want to look away, as my poor assistant is ripped asunder by the sheer power of magnetism!” Nudd placed his right hand against the blue top half of the box, closing his eyes in concentration as he channeled his magic. From where he touched the box, red paint began to spread outwards almost like a virus, tendrils of red stitching together to convert the box. As it did so, the box similarly began to shake dramatically.
Nora looked on in horror, “Nudd~ I-… I’m not feeling so good,” The brief smile in her eyes giving away that this too was part of the dramatic performance he had planned out. The paint became more red, the tremors worsening, as Nudd began to visibly sweat.
Just as the entirety of the upper half turned red, there was the sound of word snapping and metal breaking, as suddenly the top half of the box containing Nora rocket upwards in the air, the poor girl screaming up a storm as she followed the parabolic arc she had been sent on, careening head first towards the Earth.
Luckily, Nudd threw out his right hand just as she was about a meter off the ground, the box her upper half was wearing slipping right off of her and crashing, becoming a pile of splinters and a busted frame in seconds. Shockingly, the top half of Nora’s dress had been transformed into the same bright blue her lower half had been.
As Nora found herself slowly dragged back towards Nudd, her cheeks blushed, “T-Thank you for rescuing me, Nudd.”
Nudd ignored her, opening up the lower half of the box, revealing Nora’s detached lower half, her dress now the same blue color throughout. Holding on to Nora’s upper half, Nudd lined them up. and as he let go, her upper half hovered uselessly above her legs. “As you can see, Nora has now been imbued with the same polarity across her body. With the destruction of her whole, that same polarity will be a curse upon her, never allowing her halves to meet again, Thus is the unbridled power of the Magnes Arcana,” he looked away from Nora in shame.
Nora looked at her savior with concern, her upper half maintaining its position of her legs as she walked over, giving Nudd a hug. “It’s okay, Nudd… I’m sure you’ll be able to think of a way to fix this.”
Nudd looked at her in the eyes, “I can think of but one… But… It’s too risky!” He looked away once more.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Nora smiled, “Go for it~!”
Nudd looked Nora once over, her puppy dog eyes finally convincing him, “Alright… We shall have but one attempt”
From his pocket, Nudd produced two metal slices, flicking them outwards and turning them into two metal discs, one red and the other blue. He placed the red disc against the ground, instructing Nora to stand on it. As she did so, her upper half seemed to float a little lower, nearly attaching back to her waist stump. “These, are very powerful super magnets,” Nudd explained, holding the other above Nora’s head, “They have such a strong pull, that if I can apply just the right amount of pressure, they may be able to fuse you back together.”
Nudd worked slowly, delicately lowering the other super magnet closer and closer to Nora’s head, the matching polarities pushing her towards her lower half.
Unfortunately, just as they were about to make contact, the super magnet suddenly popped off the floor, slamming hard into the blue super magnet, and sending an electric shock out in a radial pattern away from the impact. Nudd looked shocked, his hands sparking and allowing him to separate the super magnets as though they were nothing,
In between the super magnets, a flat pancake slowly floated down towards the ground, Nudd quickly dropped the discharged magnets, holding the circular piece of flesh and asking, “Nora! Are you okay?!”
He outstretched the circle towards the audience, revealing Nora’s flattened face, looking a little dazed but not worse for wear. “Y-Yeah~” she said, “But let’s not do that again…”
“Don’t worry Nora, I’ll figure out how to fix this. And to you, dear viewer, let this be a warning of the awesome might of Magnets. So says The Magnet Wizard!” Nudd bellowed, taking a bow with Nora to complete his set.
~~~
Sendoff
Nudd floated off the edge of the stage, spinning in place, his outrageous outfit shifting back into his street clothes as he slowly hovered to the ground. From his pocket, he pulled the rolled up Nora out, and with a flick of his wrist, she too was returned to normal, giving him a small hug before they focused back on the stage.
David, Howard and Drake had walked up on stage. Howard in particular was grinning from ear to ear while Drake more so had gone up so that he could finish the episode off as he normally did midweek episodes. David spoke up first, “I want to ask everyone to give another round of applause for our wonderful performers this morning,” The small crowd managed to make quite a ruckus as David politely applauded everyone.
“Excellent, now before I put a close to our first ever Exhibition and allow our amazing finalists the chance to get a few more hours of rehearsal in today, I did promise that I would reveal what everyone’s been competing for at the end. Howard?” Drake smiled, gesturing next to him as he took a step back.
Howard smiled as he took center stage, “Well David,” Howard grinned, “Over the last two years, contestants have had to suffer setbacks fro closing the arbitrary challenges set in place by the production team in order to increase magic output on the show. Now, I can hardly blame them if they ran this fairly, but there have been a number of instances where the ruling was anything but,” Howard’s smile took a more sinister grin.
“In particular, I can recall a certain incident where David and I were both overruled in wanting to reward both girls for a stellar performance by being forced to transform them because ‘We need a magical transformation punishment each week’.” The sinisterness disappeared for a moment, as he smiled, “So, I’m afraid to say it, but Drake, you are tonight’s biggest loser.”
Drake’s eyes practically bugged out of his head, “W-What!?”
Howard smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I’ve already cleared it with production, and they’re totally fine with you taking the fall this week. After all, you’re about the only expendable body of the on-screen crew right now,” Howard chuckles.
“B-But…” Drake muttered,
“And folks,” Howard just refused to stop talking, clearly having the time of his life torturing the man he had fought so much with last season, “Remember to vote at home which of our lovely guest magician’s you would like to come up with a transformation for our ‘host with the most’.”
Drake looked to David for some sort of reassurance, but all he got was a warm smile, and David saying, “Don’t worry Drake. It is only for one day after all. And you’ve already been through so much this season. What’s a little magical transformation on top of it?”
Drake sighed, accepting his fate, “Well… It appears I’ve been outvoted on this one…”
“Yep,” Howard grinned, before turning towards the camera, “In any case. We hope you enjoyed watching the tricks! As Drake would say, ‘Goodnight Everybody!’”
Sorry, Voting is Closed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
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To Annette and Sable: “Girls, good to see that you take care of the two new girls in the spotlight, hope you have a good time since the time with Howard and his shenanigans. Also Sable, I remember, you still owe me a light cut, just kidding only if you want to. Anyway, I'm so glad to see you again, after a whole year. And yes I have also come along, I'm now working as Magicienne and Assistant myself, if I'm not working on my regular job, I still like to have a solid income, especially when something unplanned happens. Like a show getting cancelled.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Annette: “Hey Andrea! It’s great to talk to you again! Howard’s been keeping tabs on your career ever since you got on his radar, and let me say, you’ve been absolutely killing it! Seriously, It’s wild to think about how far you’ve come from last season! Really, I think the same could probably be said of me and Sable too,” Annette smiles, “And the new girls have been doing a pretty good job of things too! I’m so proud of all they’ve accomplished in five short weeks. Do you know when you’re going to be flying in? We could try and catch up before the show starts. I’m sure you have tons of great stories!”
Sable: Sable grins, “Oh I haven’t forgotten Andrea! Just have been super busy with training. You know, since you’re probably going to come down for the big finale, I’m certain that we can schedule something if you’re still interested!
And don’t worry, Annette and I have been keeping Howard on a short leash while the new contestants are around. Thankfully, according to Ann he’s been on his best behavior ever since last season ended. But, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
To Paxton and Kacie: “Now it's time you two, show the world what you have in store and don't worry, Howard will not tease you with anything. For good measure though, if he tries to mess with you let Annette and Sable know, they will for sure get him straightened out. For anything else, you two have the best chances and I am proud of you, by the way same goes for the other girls, I'm still in contact with them. They are really happy that you made it that far. Also don't worry about Dawn, Julia and Dahlia, they are getting taken care of.
Also you will see the surprise at the end of the week. I am sure it will blow your mind.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Paxton: Paxton smiles, “Thanks Andrea! Your words really mean a lot to me. And I really hope that I’ll get the opportunity to see the girls one last time before the season’s over! I mean, they’ve done it the past two years, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance. But I’d love to have a couple more days than just the day right before the competition, you know?”
“Anyways, Howard’s been a perfect angel since we’ve arrived. In fact, it’s almost a little annoying how much he’s come up to me and Kacie and asked if we need anything. I think he might just be going through a little bit of empty nest syndrome now that Nora’s finally moved out.”
“I’m looking forwards to hearing what this mind blowing surprise is going to be, and I really can’t wait to meet up with you again! See you soon!”
Kacie: “Thanks Andrea! Send my love to Rachel, Olive, Natalie, and Dahlia! Or should I say Dawn and Julia? Or did they even change back yet? Oh well, just send my love to everyone! I miss them a lot. I know that previous seasons have had the contestants talk about how lonely it gets towards the end, but now that it’s just me and Paxton, I’m definitely having that loneliness sync in. I mean, talking to Sable and Annette is nice and informative, and they definitely understand what we’ve gone through, but I just feel like my bond with the other contestants is more special…”
Kacie blushes, “Anyways, I’m rambling again. I’m excited to see you again, and can’t wait to hear what the big surprise is. I hope it’s good news!”
To Drake: “Great to see everything getting back into order, also, sorry I just had to pull that stunt with Dahlia, couldn't resist. Hope you like my Idea. Hope to see you at the weeks end.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)
Drake: “No worries Andrea… And it looks like you won’t have to worry about punishing me either,” Drake does his best to sound calm, but he’s clearly lets his annoyance with the circumstances seep into his voice, “Congrats on signing with them… Don’t worry, my lips are sealed until you want to tell the girls.”
To Paxton: “Looks like you had fun being in an altered form, Martin's got great advice, though I may have to try to see what its like having two arms. Anyway have fun with the challenge tomorrow, I hope you win it.
Hugs to you, we should be there a day or two before the final, so we may run into each other.” -James Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Paxton: Paxton smiles, “It was a lot of fun! Seeing everyone perform was great, and my practice with Martin afterwards was super productive because of it!”
Paxton blushes, “And… Uh… If you’re really interested in trying two arms… I- I could… you know… t-transform you and help you adjust…” Her blush deepens. Before she shakes her head, quickly saying, “Seeyouinafewdaysloveyoubye!” and rushes out of the room.
To Kacie: “Oh we'll be on our way soon and I'll be bringing my keyboards and guitar, just in case... Will I need my violin or harmonica too?... Oh we'll just have to treat them to a concert at some point. Anyway, see you soon.” -Genie Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
Kacie: Kacie laughs, “Don’t worry, I’m sure that any instrument you might forget should be available from the hotel’s practice room. It really seems like that place can make anything! I’ve yet to find a limit, anyway. I wonder how in the world Howard even created such an enchantment…”
To Howard, David and Martin: “Looks like we'll be in a day or two before the finale, so if you would like to meet I'm sure that is possible. I know how busy Martin is with the show, still we'll see you all at the afterparty for sure.” -Jacob Schutter (@@James-MacCloude)
David: “We can definitely meet up if you’re interested Jake. Martin may be busy, but I’m quite honestly using this time as a little bit of a vacation. If it weren’t for the fact that Isabella’s still just a little too young to be traveling, Amanda would probably be doing the same. Don’t worry though, when we get home, Amanda’s going to be getting a week’s worth of me time while I watch Isabella,” David smiled.
Howard: “Excellent, my friend! I don’t believe I ever gave you a proper tour of the Vegas Strip, so maybe that’ll be an enjoyable thing to do while Martin is busy preparing for the big day,” Howard grins.
Martin: “Sorry Jake. I’m glad you’ll be flying in a little early, especially because things are probably going to be crazy around here really quickly. I’m sure we’ll be able to catch up some other time. And who knows, next time we meet, I may be a World Class Magician!”