"Hey! Hey! HEEY!" I finally stopped ignoring the person trying to get my attention from behind me, as despite my efforts, if someone was really trying to get my attention, then I should at least give them a chance to explain why before letting them down. I turned around to find a nun running at me, her skirt hiked up to allow her legs to move properly. "Hey!" She waved a hand, and started to slow down. "Hey!"

"Hey," I waved back as she caught her breath. "What's up?"

"Uh, we need your help," she said as she huffed and then straightened out. "Please?"

"That... tells me nothing," I told her.

"Right, hold on," she drew breath as I realized she must have been running pretty hard in that getup. "So, Fetish 213, you know it?"

I shook my head.

"Optional class for presentation credits," the woman who still hadn't introduced herself said. "We work costumes into the performances." That explained the nun getup, but not really. "And, uh, our current thing isn't working out, and we could use a second look. I recognized you from that 350 course last semester, so I had to ask. Please?" She pleaded, holding her hands in prayer in front of her.

Oh dammit, they used the magic word. And not Abracadabra. That was covered in Intro 101. I sighed, thinking about the time frame involved. "I've got 20 minutes, I said, noting that I would be missing one bus for the next. "Think it'll last longer than that?"

"It shouldn't?" the Nun replied, wondering that herself. "You coming?"

I sighed again. "OK, sure, lead the way." Might as well. Worst comes to worst, I can delay things elsewhere. On the way back, the nun introduced herself as Kelly and explained what was up. Her and her lab partner, Denise, were practicing their routine for next week, and it wasn't working out for them. Oh, sure, the technical aspects were fine, but the performance was lacking the spark they wanted in it.

Fine, I could try to help with that. A little bit of performance feedback never hurt anyone. So Kelly explained that the concept of their performance was that as a Nun, she had caught one of her students, Denise, doing inappropriate things, and was to be punished. As the punishing nun, she would start by removing the offending part of Denise - sawing her in half to remove her lower extremities, and when that didn't work, cut her head off to remove control over her entire body. Sounded ... well, who was I to complain about stories using magic as a way to move the plot forward? And they didn't want feedback about that part of the act they were putting on, so I didn't offer any except to be generically supportive.

We got to the practice room, and stepped in. Kelly introduced me and Denise to each other, and I had to admit that Fetish 213 was earning its stripes. Denise was practically un-dressed as a sexy Catholic School 'girl', with a half-sized top that was tied off under her chest as there was absolutely no way to close it up, with a maliciously short skirt. If she was aware of the panties around her ankle, then she didn't give me notice. I waved hello and set my bag down on a deck, and Denise waved back. They explained that for the technical side of things, the Nun would lay the Schoolgirl out on several desks, and cut her in parts using the gaps of the desks as guidelines.

OK, I could live with that. I suggested that they show me, and they agreed. I sat down in an empty seat as The Nun dragged the Student into the room, lambasting her for her uncouth behavior, and promising her punishment. The Student objected, and I watched as the Nun forced the student over the desks, where she laid a Bible down on her stomach 'to hold her there for her sins', as the Nun decreed. Eh, I filed that away for later. "I shall have to remove the source of your behavior!" the Nun cried out as she let a long wooden ruler, one of those with the brass or copper straight-edges set into them, slide out of her sleeve. Very nice work, that.

"No!" the Student objected, trying to free themselves, but the Bible was too powerful for them. Yeah, going to have to talk to them as even in this course-work, religion was a very touchy subject when actual holy books got involved. As I thought about it, the more that had to go. Just covering bases, really. There could be other ways to restrain the Student. Anyways, the Nun took the ruler and pressed down through the Student, the latter objecting quite strenuously. Yeah, I could see where the 'lack of spark' was. Denise wasn't selling this at all. But the Nun finished her cutting and with a dramatic flourish - well done, by the way, slid the two sets of desks apart!

I politely and very quietly clapped, as was appropriate, and the Nun did the traditional spin of the lower half, all on one table. The casters were good, and she slid the lower-half away to focus on the upper half of Student and the Nun. "Look at you!" The Nun was trying, but the acting wasn't up to stuff, "you're still thinking impure and lewd thoughts! I must remove the source of these evil thoughts!" The Nun's lines needed work as well, but I held my tongue as she then brought down the sharp edge of her ruler on the Student's neck, cutting that off cleanly, sliding it away like a chopped vegetable. The Student faked losing control over her body, going limp, and the Nun crossed her arms in triumph. "Now, you shall be a model student!"

The Nun bowed, and I took that as a sign that the act was over. I clapped as Denise was restored, and the two of them took a bow. "Well?" Kelly asked me, hoping for feedback.

"OK," I started, leaning back in the chair I was in. I still had time. "You sure you want a bible there?" I explained my concerns and the two of them seemed to take my criticism in stride. They admitted that it was a prop more than anything else, and could be ditched for "The power of the Saint Compels you!" as both a Poltergeist reference and to enforce the power of the Nun. I didn't comment about that.

"Second," I added, "the acting is bad. I mean, you're acting and delivering your lines, but it's like you're not in the same scene," I tried to explain. I have a friend in another University who told me that in one of his drama courses, he was the only one in his class to read a certain scene from a certain play and realize that the characters weren't meant to interact with each other, they were talking past, or at each other, and not to each other as though they were having a conversation. He was proud of that, and I wound up stealing shamelessly from him. "And honestly, the getups are nice, but you aren't really using them as part of the act," I said. "Let me," I rose from my seat and walked over to the performance desk. "Can you lay down for me?" I asked Denise.

She did so and I asked for the cutting ruler from Kelly. "You've got the sensual student," I indicated the woman in front of me, "and the unaffected Nun," the woman standing to the side. "But the Nun doesn't really show this, as you barely interact with her physically." I held the saw-ruler up over the bare stomach of the Student. "And this is Fetish, right? so play to it. Escalate without breaking character. The Nun won't care where she has to hold down the student she is punishing, so why not," and I put the hand not holding the ruler down on the Student's crotch, pressing into her gap there. "With her panties down already," I pointed at them with the ruler, still at her ankles, "you sensualize the contact but without the sexualization that comes from certain stimulus." I moved up towards her neck, "and when you do the second cut, hold her down like this," and I put my free hand on her breast, pressing down to hold her, and not to fondle her. "Hell, have one pop out just for funsies," I tapped her other breast with the ruler. "Then do the chop."  I released Denise and handed the tool back to Kelly. "You get that?"

"Yeah," Denise said. "Smexy it up a little because of the costumes, and work on the dialogue."

I shrugged. "Pretty much. Anything else?"

The two shared a look. "Nah, thanks for the help," Kelly said.

"No problem." I shook their hands. "But if you'll excuse me, I have a bus to catch."

"See you!" Denise gave me a cheery goodbye. I collected my bag and headed for the door. "We'll let you know how it turned out!"

"Sure!" I told them as I opened the door. "Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Alice!" they called out as one, and as the door closed behind me, I heard Denise say to Kelly, "time to switch."

Whatever, I had a bus stop to reach, and time was short.