In Too Deep 4 - Presentation

Steve thought that finishing the Disembodied Princess prop for Kelly ended his labours, but Friday night proved him wrong.  First, he’d had to stay late to fabricate a curtain rod addition for the prop.  Then once he got back to the apartment, he found Kelly and Barry discussing how to move all the props to and from the club where they’d be performing.

Thus Steve’s next task was to get in some wood and build some large, thin boxes to hold the portals they’d be bringing.  Barry suggested that each one should have its own box, so there wouldn’t be any accidental size changes.  Steve was tired enough that he just followed the list of boxes Barry drew up.

The last step was modifying Barry’s prop box with several sets of portal-holders.  Barry had helped by making the notched wooden posts to hold the simpler pairs in place, such as the ones for the ‘appear’ portal.  Steve helped with the most complex pair, the closest size match to the portal in the hat had one of the middle-sized portals on the other end.  To Kelly they looked quite familiar, similar to the arrangements Barry had crafted for the small portal ends in the mouse maze.  

While all that had been going on, Kelly had sewn a curtain for the Disembodied Princess, two sheets of fabric that could slide onto the ring Steve had added at the top.  This time, when they practiced the routine for the Impalement, the curtains hid Kelly’s fumbling with the spike.  Seeing the curtain whisked away and Kelly impaled upon that cruel spire of metal took Steve’s breath away.

“The audience will love it,” he said.  “Though I can’t say that I do.  You sure you’re OK, Kelly?”

Kelly giggled, and danced a little jig.  “Perfectly fine.”

Barry withdrew the spike suddenly, showing it off with a flourish then setting it aside.  “I’ll break out the old linking rings to cover for Kelly going to change her top again, then we do the Disembodied Princess.”

“What if we left the Sword Basket on stage after I do that, and I take it off after Impale?”

Barry mulled that, then nodded.  “I can mess around and drop all the swords into it to get rid of them while you’re changing and fetching the Disembodied Princess.  We’ll set it up in the morning, after a good night’s sleep.”

Steve muttered about how that would be nice, and went to his room.  The incident with the Impalement spike had not only put a large hole in the wall to his room, it had turned his bed into kindling as well.  He’d made a sort of nest out of the wreckage, and while it wasn’t too uncomfortable to sleep on, it wasn’t great.  He hoped he’d have time to figure out a more comfortable arrangement soon.

* * *

Saturday started far too early for Steve.  He heard Kelly and Barry dragging props around at an ungodly hour and staggered out of his nest to see what was up.  Kelly was already suited up, and they were practicing the Disembodied Princess.  Steve watched from his door as the prettiest girl in the world vanished with the whisk of a portal ring.

“You’re not really going to show the audience the disappear with the curtains open, are you?” asked Steve.

Barry shook his head.  “Nah.  We wanted to practice getting the motion just right, the rings jam if you push them the wrong way.”

Steve groaned.  “I’ll see what I can do with it.  Breakfast first.”

Kelly lifted up the lower portal of the Disembodied Princess and ducked out from under it.  Barry clucked at her for going out the wrong way, but she just grinned at him on her way to the kitchen.  “I like being littler.  Makes Steve seem huge.”

Steve blushed, and Barry just rolled his eyes.  “You two seriously need to get a room already.”

Steve sputtered incoherently, and then stammered apologies until Barry put him to work on designing yet one more box.  They’d been using a cardboard box as the other end of the sword basket portal, but Barry wanted something that the swords wouldn’t damage when he dropped them in.  They settled on a small wooden box that they already had lying around.  Steve glued on a plexiglass lid so that Kelly could see when she ducked inside to avoid the last sword.

After breakfast, Steve got to work on the Disembodied Princess.  The big runners were working fine, it was the little ones on the miniature model that were a problem.  He cursed at how hard it was to work on something so tiny – the small version was only two inches tall.

Kelly was the one that suggested Steve go inside it to work on it.  He looked nervous for a moment, and she reassured him that she’d keep Barry away from the little prop.  “Besides,” she added with a winning smile, “it’s a nice solid cage.  You’ll be safe in there, even if I pick it up.”

Kelly gestured to Barry, who sighed and retired to his room to work on the new hutch and installing the other end of the hat-portal pair there.

She helped Steve into the Disembodied Princess, gave him a kiss “for luck”, and slid the portals to make him vanish.  Then she turned eagerly toward the tiny version of the prop, watching the inch and a half tall version of Steve work on the sliders.  Soon he was distracted by his work, and she inched her way closer and closer, until she could put her hand around the prop.

Steve yelped when he was suddenly engulfed in Kelly’s hand, but held his ground.  She lifted the prop up in front of her face, and opened her hand again.  “Oh, you’re so adorable this tiny,” she breathed.

Steve waved up at her with his best attempt at a brave smile.  “And you’re awe-inspiring,” he called back.

“Not terrifying?”

“Really trying hard not to think that way.”  Steve was still staring up into Kelly’s face, looking more than a little stunned.  She smiled and blew him a kiss, then set the prop down.

Steve gave himself a shake, then went back to work making sure the mechanics of the Disembodied Princess would work reliably.  Once that was done, Kelly and Barry started rehearsing in earnest.

Steve acted as their audience, and the door to Barry’s room was the ‘curtain’ to ‘backstage’.  He watched two full run-throughs, the second a little more polished than the first.

“I think you two have got it.  Good thing, as the show’s in a couple hours.  I do have two comments.  One, you’re doing much better cheating the hat so I can’t see the reflection from the bottom, but the audience angle will be a little lower.  The other... where the heck is that bunny coming from?”

Kelly shared a grin with Barry.  “Still hasn’t figured it out.  Should we let him go backstage?”

“At the show,” said Barry.  “Not before.”

“Backstage?” asked Steve with a grin.  “I’ve always wanted to watch a magic show from...  I mean, sure, I can sit backstage and help organize props.”

Barry laughed.  “Least I can do, man.  Though...”  He got a distant look, and wouldn’t say more.

They ate a late lunch, did one more run-through that Steve pronounced perfect, and then packed everything into the boxes.  To store the Disembodied Princess, one of the portal-holding boxes had been left open on one side, with brackets to hold the portal in place.  But when they lowered the prop to where it jammed on its internal portals, a large dome was left hanging out.  Kelly suggested reversing it and sliding the portals to the other end, leaving only the base and casters sticking out.  That made it much easier to move.

The resulting pile was pretty small, in the end.  With the Disembodied Princess portaled, most of the rest fit into a single large box – Kelly’s box for the other end of the Sword Basket portal, various small hand props, and the pair of portals that made the hat have roughly same-scale portals at either end.  The swords and impalement spike went into the Sword Basket, the rings for Kelly’s appear were in two slim boxes, and Barry added the portal to Kelly’s apartment to its own box as well.

“Why are we taking that along?” asked Steve.

“Part of the act,” said Barry, without explaining it further.  When he added the mouse maze to the pile, he explained that it was being used as a multi-portal gateway and was needed “just in case”.

They stopped off for a bite to eat before showing up early at the club.  As advertised, the stage was quite small, and the backstage area was little more than a curtained-off section behind it.  When nobody else was looking, they unpacked the Disembodied Princess and set it on its casters.  The appearance and portal rings were set against the wall, and then all they could do was wait.

* * *

As Barry strode out through the curtains to polite applause, Kelly gave Steve a quick kiss on the cheek, “for luck”, then hopped through the portal that used to lead to her apartment.  Steve slipped off to the side of the curtain, where he’d be hidden from the crowd, so he could see Barry at work.

After a little bit of patter, and a lot of talking up his magic hat, Barry turned it and waved it generally toward the audience to show that it was indeed quite empty.

“Who wants to see the old rabbit out of the hat trick?” he asked.  There were a couple of boos from the audience, so he stuck his hand into the hat and drew out a giant plush carrot.  It was twice as long as the hat itself.  That got a few laughs, and the hecklers stopped booing.

Barry shook his head comically.  “That’s not it...”  He tossed the carrot over his shoulder and glared into the hat.  “Come on bunny, I know you’re in there.  Show yourself!”

A juggling ball came flying out of the hat and bounced off Barry’s forehead.  He grabbed it before it bounced into the audience, and flung it back into the hat.  “No!  Not the juggling balls, nobody wants to see that!”  Three more flew out of the hat.  Two soared over his shoulders, but one got him on the chin.  “Hey!  Well, at least you’re out of ammunition.”

A balled up scarf flew out next, followed by half a dozen others.  Barry sighed.  “Did I forget to pay you again?”  He pulled a carrot out of his pocket, and dropped it into the hat, then held the hat to the side while he turned toward the audience.  “It’s so hard to get good help these days.”

While he was talking, a rabbit poked its head out of the hat, and waggled its ears at the audience.  Barry feigned obliviousness until a few of the audience members called out about the rabbit.  Barry turned toward the hat, but the bunny ducked down just in time.  “A rabbit?  I don’t see a rabbit.”

As Steve stared on in wonder at the rabbit’s deliberate antics, Barry continued to tell his tale of woe to the audience.  The bunny poked its head up once more.  This time even more of the audience called out.  “What?  A rabbit?  Are you sure?”  And of course by the time Barry turned to check, there was no rabbit to be seen.

On the third go-round he was ready, though, and grabbed the rabbit before it could escape.  He held it up carefully for the audience to see.  “And there you go.  One rabbit from the hat.  Can I get a big round of applause for my assistant-bunny here?”

The audience response was gratifying.  As it started to die down, the bunny gave a little wave, then Barry popped it back into the hat.  He quickly ducked behind the curtain to swap the hat for a fabric-shrouded portal.

Barry was tidying up the stage and talking up the audience about something being missing from his act, perhaps a beautiful assistant.  While he went on, a giant bunny appeared through the apartment portal.  Steve stared at it in shock.  Something about it seemed familiar as it hopped closer to him.  He frowned, then his eyes widened in wonder as it started to change shape, acquiring a crest of blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Kelly?”

The half-rabbit, half-woman nodded, growing ever more human as he watched.

“My God, you’re beautiful like this,” Steve breathed in wonder.

Kelly looked at him curiously, then at his gesture turned to look at herself in the mirrored surface of the portal she’d emerged from.  “Wow...” was all she’d said.  She was mostly human now, but still had cute rabbit ears, and a dusting of fur over a face that hinted at a muzzle.

Barry’s patter was getting a little more improvised, and Kelly swore.  “I have to go... but I’m not changing further.  Crap!  Well, at least I have my outfit...  This should prove interesting.”

Kelly hopped into the fabric-ringed portal that led to the one at Barry’s feet, and it started to rise.  The audience tittered as Barry was still carrying on, and hadn’t noticed the movement.  He turned to the ring in mock surprise, then started belatedly making mystic gestures as it rose into the air still surrounded by the shimmery fabric.

Once it had reached head-height, Barry announced proudly, “Everyone welcome my assistant...”

Kelly threw the ring aside, appearing from behind the fabric at last in all her bunnified glory.

Barry stared at her bug-eyed for half a second, took another heartbeat to recover, and called out, “My assistant, Bunny!”  He took her hand, and they both bowed to the crowd.

Steve grabbed the sword basket, and handed it off to ‘Bunny’ as she approached the curtain with the appear portal.  Barry and Kelly quickly got back into their practiced groove, and soon Kelly was wriggling her hips through the narrow portal concealed in the neck of the sword basket.  After her hips were clear she made more of a production of sliding herself the rest of the way in, pretending to fold herself into the rather small basket.  Steve peeked over at the box where her body was appearing, and saw that she was indeed folding herself into a compact shape, and marveled anew at her lithe little body.

Once Kelly was settled in place, Barry lifted the basket and spun it around to show there was nowhere for her to hide.  The apparent feats of strength and flexibility drew applause, making Barry grin.  Steve met him at the curtain with a rack of swords, which Barry rolled out beside the basket while talking up his assistant’s lithe dexterity.  “So she’ll easily be able to get out of the way of a sword or two.”

By the time he’d plunged the fourth sword into the basket, Kelly was making faces as she pretended to contort herself out of the way.  She threw in a wince at the sixth sword, then started shaking her head when Barry approached with his Excalibur prop.  When she ducked out of the way entirely, there were some giggles from the audience, that turned into a gasp as the sword was plunged straight down into the neck of the basket.

Having ducked out of sight, Kelly was fully visible inside her plastic-topped box.  Steve was staring down at her, and she gave him a quick wave and a saucy wink.  She giggled at his slack-jawed reaction.  When Excalibur was drawn back out, she gave Steve one last wave, then re-appeared in the sword basket.  She slipped back out of it while it was still pincushined with the other swords, and bowed to the waves of applause that were coming her way.

While Steve and Barry moved the Disembodied Princess prop onto the stage, Kelly hid behind the curtain and slipped into her Impalement top.  Barry spun the prop around to show it off, then assisted Kelly into it.  He closed the bar in front of her, and drew the curtains.

“Dodging thin little bits of metal is one thing,” said Barry as Steve handed him the giant metal spike.  “But dodging this?  Let’s see how Kelly does.”

Barry had turned the prop sideways, so the audience was able to see him slowly slide the spike in one side, and saw it emerge out the other end.  The hush of the audience was broken by a few catcalls once more.  Barry grinned.  “You’re right, it’s a big prop.  Lots of room to get out of the way.  Let’s see what’s going on inside.

With a flourish he pulled back the curtains, revealing Kelly posing prettily and the spike apparently passing right through her.  Someone in the audience called out, “It’s going behind her!”  Barry’s grin grew even wider, and he slowly turned the prop, revealing clearly to everyone present that the spike went right through Kelly, emerging between her breasts.  As each member of the audience in turn realized that there was no way Kelly had avoided the spike, a wave of drawn breaths rippled through the audience.

Then Barry swiftly withdrew the spike, leaving Kelly standing there perfectly unharmed.  She stepped out of the prop and pirouetted to show off that she was indeed intact.  The cheering that met her was deafening.

As Kelly carried the Sword Basket offstage, Barry started into his usual linking rings routine.  The audience booed him soundly.  Kelly changed her top as quickly as she could.  She returned to the stage and started exaggeratedly sneaking up behind Barry, turning some of the boos and catcalls into laughs and guffaws.  When she grabbed Barry’s rings out of his hands mid-performance, the shock on his face drew a big round of laughs.  

Kelly tossed the rings under the curtain as the laughs continued, then stepped up and into the Disembodied Princess once more.

Barry closed the curtains, made mystical gestures, and when they reopened, Kelly’s midriff was gone.  The audience was silent until Barry waved his hand through the space where Kelly’s belly should have been, then they started to murmur among themselves appreciatively.  When he spun the prop around to once again show all sides, there was scattered applause.

Barry closed the curtains briefly, and this time when Kelly appeared her legs were missing.  That caused more of a stir.  One more close and open, and all that was left was Kelly’s head, pressed up against the bars of the prop so she could be seen.

Once more the curtain closed and opened, to reveal Kelly whole once more.  She waved enthusiastically to the audience as they applauded.  Then Barry threw a smokebomb at his feet.  Under its cover he dropped a portal, and Kelly was gone.  That led to raucous applause, to which Barry bowed repeatedly.

“Thank you all, you’ve been a great audience,” he said once the noise had died down, then scooted the prop backstage.  Steve was holding the other half of the Disembodied Princess in his hand, staring down at the tiny Kelly revealed within.  She was posing for him cutely, and apparently without fear.

Barry sighed, and pushed the other portal down, making Kelly reappear.  He opened the Disembodied Princess and she stepped out right into Steve’s arms.

“You were great!” enthused Steve, then kissed her soundly.  As the kiss carried on, Barry sighed, and started packing up the props.  When he was done, they were still kissing, so he turned to the mouse maze and made a few minor changes there.

Steve and Kelly took no notice, they were still lost in each other’s eyes.

Barry shook his head, and picked up the last portal.  “Get a room, you two.”  Then he dropped it over them.  A moment later it hit the floor, and neither Steve nor ‘Bunny’ were anywhere to be seen.

Barry put the portal in its box, secured it with a sturdy cargo strap, and dollied the whole load out to the van.  Then he returned to the club, to watch the other acts and see if there were any likely conquests among the audience.

* * *

Steve and Kelly rolled apart after landing on their sides.  “Where the heck are we?” asked Steve, staring around in wonder at the white walls.

Kelly tested the portal behind them before she responded.  “Blocked.  We can't get out of here that way.”

“But where is here, anyway?”

“Harry’s mouse maze, a.k.a. the wood between the portals.  But that's not the important question now.  What I want to know is where did that kiss come from?  I thought...”

Steve looked away and blushed.  “I...  You didn’t look like Kelly to me any more, and I...”

“I'll stay like this instead of going back to human if it means more of that.”

“I can’t.  You’re still Barry’s girl.  I don't poach.”

Kelly looked around, then started to growl.  “Even though he trapped us in here?  The portal to my apartment is gone!”

“Gone?” Steve asked curiously.  Looking around he saw there was another portal on the wall adjacent to the one they'd fallen through.  “Where does that one go, then?”

Kelly blushed.  “My rabbit hutch.”

“Why do you have a hutch?” Steve inquired with intense curiosity.

“Because I’m not Barry's girl any more.”  Kelly’s blush grew incandescent.  “I’m his pet.”