Patrick knocked on the door to the garage of the address he had been given. Which was a detached building from the house proper. It was evening, and the street lights were on, the overcast grey clouds threatening to snow more than they already had. He waited, then knocked again. "Just a minute!" he finally heard someone say from inside the garage, and so he put his hands in his pockets to pass the time. It wasn't cold enough yet for gloves, but they were there, just in case.

The door creaked open. "Sorry," he heard Karen say from behind the door. "Soundproofing, and double doors."

Patrick slid into the small entryway, the door closing behind him and the space-heater kicking in to kick out the chill. "Evening," he said to his host as he looked around and found empty coat hangers on which to place his touque, scarf and jacket. As his back was turned, he felt and heard Karen pass behind him and into the main area of the garage. He pulled slippers out of one pocket, and slid them over his feet as he didn't like wearing socks around someone's place he didn't know, and wasn't about to wear winter boots inside either.

He stepped into the Garage itself, closing the door behind him. "Huh," he commented with a grunt. "Thought it would be bigger."

It was more than a garage, or rather, there was space for two vehicles, a storage/work area behind, shelves lining the sides, and a small storage/attic space above.

None of which were actually present as the whole thing had been converted into basically a one-room apartment. The front of the garage was now a living space with a nice circular throw-rug in the middle, two chairs and a couch arranged to face a ridiculously large TV and entertainment center that was backed up to where the garage doors would be. At the back was a small bathroom area, walled off, but pretty obvious what it was by the water heater beside it and the pipes leading in. A small kitchen area had the necessities and a proper counter-space to work with, while a bed went up against the far wall from the entryway.

He saw Sarah lounging on a chair, flicking through the TV channels with the bored disinterest of a person who was just done with the day. Patrick empathized with that. Karen wore long stripped leggings, slippers on her own feet to avoid walking on the bare concrete floor, and a over-sized t-shirt that read 'Open Package, Win Prizes' on the front. He didn't know if that was custom made, or if it was found in a store. He wouldn't bet on either. "What's your poison?" she asked as she reached the fridge and pulled it open.

"Water, please," he made his request known.

"Lightweight!" Sarah yelled out, the show currently on the screen was something to do with puppets. She was in her usual. "And it's like this because making it bigger on the inside takes way too much work that we can't do right now."

"She has a point," Karen put a glass of water into his hands and showed him to the seats, where she took the couch and he took the last chair. "Spacial expansion is hard, and not performance hard either. The props and stuff we use are in storage."

"You never really see what goes on behind the scenes," Patrick commented as he let his water reach room temperature. "I guess the ASMC did a lot of work off-camera."

Sarah made a snorting sound. "Hell no, the Boss had done so much stuff to that theater she could do whatever the hell she wanted."

"Or supported us when we did things," Karen added. "We're not so skilled, or powerful enough."

"Which means having props prepared ahead of time, and a better plan," Sarah finished. "So, you think of any ideas?"

"I was thinking Pirate themed," Karen said before Patrick could say anything. "We know the theme, and have costumes already."

"I have a costume," Patrick pointed out. "And I'm pretty sure that between the two of you, you have one, not two."

"That's an easy fix," Sarah noted. "I'm not against it, and Pirate Captain and his booty has an appeal to it."

"Normally I wouldn't mind the context, but we should really watch the phrasing," Patrick said, finally sipping his water. "You wanted me to help because of sexism in the whole thing," he waved one hand around over his head, "so double-standard much with 'booty'?"

"And this is why he's going to be amazing," Sarah rolled her head to look at Karen. "He's got a head on his shoulders."

Karen huffed right back. "You're the one with loose lips," she retorted.

"Anyway," Patrick sensed this wasn't new, "Pirate theme. And I can't do the thing, so how are we going to do this?"

"Well, depending on the act, either we can do the thing ourselves, or do it to the other," Karen said. "So, sawing in half for example, would be me sawing Sarah for best effect, or you doing a fake sawing and Sarah cutting herself in the box."

Patrick leaned back, looking up, thinking. "Division, Levitation, Transfer and Transformation," he recited. "I think. The four major groupings of magic performances?"

"Sounds about right," Sarah said. "Ooooh, period drama," she announced as she kept flipping through the channels. "But I think an escape is in there too."

"Idea then," Patrick considered aloud, "One of those quick-escapes, where one of you is locked inside a treasure chest, the other stands atop behind a curtain, and you switch places?"

"On theme," Karen agreed, "and a switch like that is pretty easy to do."

"Walk the plank!" Sarah cried out in excitement! "Patrick could shove one of us into a tank of water, all chained up, and then we would escape."

"Or reveal your true colors as a mermaid," he suggested. "But if we're building props, water is really, like really heavy. You'd have to make sure the stage we'd be on can handle the weight."

"Make it a bath-style, not a shower style, and the ground pressure would be less," Karen pointed out. "And the reclining mermaid is a classic since that one movie from the 80's."

"What movie?" Sarah and Patrick asked at the same time, only for Karen to shrug.

"I'm thinking that this might be a 'story' type show," Patrick mused, "Pirate and his two crew arrive at an island, and things happen."

"I can see that," Sarah agreed. "The Mermaid escapes at the end, having outwitted the other Pirates."

"How long do we have?" Patrick asked. "Because that's going to affect how much time we have."

"Fifteen minutes?" Karen said. "We'd be part of a larger set of acts."

"Five acts would be too fast. Three then?"

"Five minutes each? Maybe four if we can do it properly," Karen answered him.

"So, Pirates arrive, Ready to bury their treasure," Sarah wrote out with her words, "They arrive, and something happens, something happens, and the mermaid is trapped in the treasure chest, but she switches places with the other pirate woman. The Mermaid goes back to the captain, who chains her up and tries to drown her, but she's a mermaid, and escapes."

"I like that," Karen agreed with the idea. "But what about those first two 'somethings'?"

"The Pirate Captain," Patrick suggested, "levitates the other two over so they can be alone for the chest switch. He won't know of the betrayal."

"That leaves division for the first trick," Sarah raised one finger to the sky. "But for balance sake, it would have to involve both of us."

"They get caught in a trap," Patrick thought, "like a net or some vines, and the Captain has to cut them out, but cuts too well, meaning he has to reassemble them."

"It would have to be something in a box," Sarah objected, "because we need to make this believable."

"The two pirates rush ahead of the captain, and get caught in a box," Karen laid out her idea, "They are visible inside, or have hands sticking out. The Captain then has to cut them out, and gets pieces mixed up."

"I don't see it," Patrick told her.

"Well, imagine a mismade cabinet," Karen explained, "but only the middle two sections, not the feet or head parts. The two pirates would be caught in a trap that's like that, like a bear trap, and he'll have to cut them out."

"That's... something we would need to practice," Patrick admitted. "But if that works for you guys? Double-sawing variation, Levitation over spike pit, chest-switch, mermaid transformation?"

"It's enough to start working on," Sarah agreed. Karen nodded. "So," she continued, "about that contract...?"