While Sorcerer Spectra moved Chelly’s props out of the way, he looked through the seats for the candidates for his next act. It was a good idea to get the group acts completed before the audience had thinned too much, after all. Particularly if there were any children in the audience that were close friends. Allowing them to stay together in even the most unlikely of circumstances was one of the more positive aspects of his duty.
“Stop poking me!” A boy’s voice cried out.
“You spilled your ketchup on me on purpose, didn’t you?” A girl’s voice spat.
“How ‘bout you stop stop kicking my leg?” A second boy yelled.
Spectra sighed. On the other hand, a group act was also an excellent opportunity to help the more unruly members of the audience put aside their differences. And from the looks of things, it would be best not to put it off much longer.
Nate groaned. He and Katie were seated behind the three bickering children, and the two were not happy about it. The trio in front of them had been getting on each other’s nerves since the show had started, but they had usually been sufficiently awestruck by the performances on stage to forget their squabbles for a few minutes and let the rest of the audience enjoy the show in peace. But it seemed their gradual agitation of each other had finally grown to a boiling point, and now everyone was staring their way. Not that it seemed to stop them. He was half tempted to tell them all to just go outside and let everyone else enjoy themselves.
But before he could, Spectra spoke up. “Excuse me! May I have some quiet, please?”
The arguing didn’t stop.
“My next act will require a the help of three audience members! If you you want to participate, by all means, speak up! Doesn’t matter what you’re saying, as long as you say it loud enough for the whole audience to hear…”
The shouting went on.
“Ah yes! You three! Please, come up at once.”
The trio continued quarrelling, until Nate tapped each of them on the shoulder. They glared at him in a huff, and he simply pointed them to the wizard onstage, beckoning them.
“Looks like I get to go up there and help the show!” The girl stood up. “You two can stay down here. Jerks like you shouldn’t be on stage.”
“No, he’s pointing to me!” The first boy said, scooting his way into the aisle. “You guys go find someone else to bother.”
“You’re and her are the ones doing the bothering!” The second boy said, racing to the stage. “And I’m gonna be a part of the show first!”
The three children tripped over themselves, crashing onto the stage, and given the audience a few precious seconds of silence.
“Good! We needed three volunteers for the next act,” Spectra quickly spoke up, taking advantage of the opportunity to be properly heard. “Are the three of you ready to work together?”
“Work together?” The younger boy gaped. “With them? No way!”
“With how my brothers have been acting? No!” The girl said.
“Are you kidding?” The older boy asked.
“Not at all.” Spectra said. “If you don’t want to work together, I understand. However, the three of you were making a lot of noise, and I don’t think the other kids liked it.”
“He started it!” The older boy said, pointing at the younger.
“No, you’re the one that wouldn’t get out of the way when the cat was swinging around!” The sister said.
“That’s wrong!” The younger brother said, pointing to his sister. “You’re the one that started it with…”
“REGARDLESS OF WHO STARTED IT!” Spectra suddenly spoke in a booming voice, all three siblings going quiet. He continued in his normal tone. “It’s not fair to the rest of the children if they only hear your arguing, rather than the show. So, if you don’t want to work together, I will ask you to go outside.”
The three siblings glared at each other, then looked to Spectra.
“Alright.”
“Okay.”
“Fine.”
“Good! Now then, why don’t you all tell the audience your names.
“I’m Todd,” said the youngest.
“”My name’s Emily,” said the middle sister.
“Paul,” the older brother said.
“Well then, Paul, Emily, Todd, I’d like the three of you to help our audience get a little bit of a laugh.”
Paul stepped toward the magician. “What do you haaaa-” He suddenly found himself falling face down on the floor, Emily having stuck out her foot to trip him. Emily snickered, while the audience laughed. Paul normally would have groaned, but he couldn’t make a sound as he picked himself up off the ground. Not that he was paying attention to his lack of ability to make noise. It felt like his whole face got pressed in, there. He massaged his cheeks a bit, trying to get his face to feel normal again. His cheeks felt WAY softer than it should have, but he soon found his skin returning to its usual firmness, and that familiar wooden texture. His jaws stretched out, both halves taking a boxy, rectangular shape, forming a snout nearly double the length of the rest of his head. His teeth spread apart along the edges of his elongated jaws, taking basic, triangular shapes, while his nostrils had moved up to the end of his snout. They were small, round pits, with little depth, no longer needing to take in oxygen. Paul’s tongue stopped moving, seemingly glued to the bottom of his jaw, before flattening out to a simple red-painted image on his bottom jaw. His ears shrank back, becoming little holes in his head, while his eyes moved almost to the top of it. His face feeling like it usually did once more, Paul turned to face his siblings, ready for payback, as upbeat music started to play throughout the tent.
While Emily was busy laughing at her older brother, Todd took advantage of his sister’s distraction to tug on the bottom of her black skirt, causing her to fall backwards, as the children in the audience giggled. Her skirt split straight down the middle on both the left and right, cutting it into two distinct halves. The back half spread out into a flat semicircle on the ground behind her, stiffening and growing thicker. From what would have been the center of the the circle, seven straight lines were carved to the outer edges, forming eight equal wedges. A series of small grooves were carved into the wooden slices, giving each the appearance a feather. Meanwhile, the front half of her dress wrapped around her lower body and legs, becoming skin-tight, before the fibers seemed to melt together, becoming a layer of black paint covering most of her legs. Speaking of her legs, they seemed to lose some of the definition they had once had, becoming wooden cylinders, somehow able to bend at the knees, despite lacking them. Her feet seemed to shrink back into her legs, while three of her toes on each foot stretched out to a point, curling as they did so, a yellow paint covering them. The other toes shrank away to nothing. Emily stood up, the wooden semi-circle that had once been her dress draping behind her, as if they were actual tail feathers. She looked at the audience, fuming at their laughter. “It’s not supposed to be funny when it’s happening to a girl!” She cried, stamping her talon. The children laughed at her pouting, the sudden disappearance of her skirt, and any undergarments underneath, not seeming funny or unusual to them. Not that there was anything naughty to see, anymore.
Todd grinned, and tried to run off stage, but Emily went after him, and grabbed him by the arm, and tugged him back toward her, causing him to stumble back into reach of her other arm. “You deserved it!” Todd said. Emily glared at him, and twisted both of his arms, causing him to yelp. The audience snickered alongside Emily, as Todd broke free, shaking his arms a bit, his arms becoming a little thinner, as they turned a brown color and gained a wooden texture. His red shirt seemed to melt into a single piece, wrapped tight around his body, becoming a layer of pain that spread over his neck and arms. His torso swelled, taking a round, almost spherical shape. His breathing stopped, even as his body continued to move. His hands became a little wider, and his fingers shorter, almost block-like. They slightly resembled paws, including an unpainted “pad” on each palm and fingertip. Todd groaned, angry that he got caught like that.
Paul knew his sister would be standing there, laughing. That’s what she’d usually do at this point. He didn’t question how he knew what his usually unpredictable siblings would do, (and in fact, something seemed to be telling him that she was being abnormally noisy, right now, so she was still a little unpredictable, even now), he just knew that both he and the audience would enjoy the payback he’d give her. And so he made his move, pulling on her lips and nose. The children giggled as Emily’s lips stretched out a few inches, fusing with her nose, and hardened, turning brown, and then curving downward to a point at the end, while her teeth receded into her mouth. Her skin turned a dark, bark-like color, as her head became a bit rounder, her ears shrinking back into her head, and her hair seeming to vanish as the top of her cylindrical head took a rough, dome-like shape. The new beak didn’t throw his sister off, and Emily quickly clamped it down on her brother’s hand. Were her beak more flexible, she would have grinned, but she was just as sure that the audience was eating it up.
The kids laughed as Paul’s long jaws opened wide, as if to yell in pain, but no sound came out. He wasn’t in quite as much pain as he was showing, but as long as he and his siblings were fighting, might as please the crowd. His hand cramped a bit in her grip, as the flesh turned into hard, yet flexible wood, the tips of his fingers whittling down into a pointy claw shape. The wood seemed to spread up his arm, causing the limb to grow and contract in various places, becoming a little more rectangular. His dark green shirt got tighter as the wood traveled under it. The shirt soon became form-fitting, revealing a series of ridges carved out of the boy’s back, before seeming to melt from cloth to paint, spreading over his changed head while his body became a solid block of wood, his other arm soon mimicking the first. Both arms looked a little shorter than they had been before, when Paul finally managed to free himself.
Todd was busy laughing at his brother’s misfortune, his hands on his belly, and his head thrown back, as if playing up his amusement for the viewers. The ever-more alligator-like Paul stomped silently up to his brother, with an exaggerated expression of anger on his face. He wound up a punch, and landed a blow squarely on his brother’s stomach. Todd let out a gasp, leaning forward as the force of the punch appeared to make a large, thick wooden limb emerge from his back, nearly as large and wide as Todd himself. Dozens upon dozens of little grooves were cut all over the large new appendage, giving the impression of a fluffy, bushy tail, which curled down a bit at the end. Not only that, but the red paint that had covered him earlier seemed to splatter onto his legs after the punch. It started to spread over them as they became thicker, his feet growing longer. His toes curled up into rounded, paw-like carvings, while little pads swole up on his feet.
As Paul mimed laughter, and Todd recovered, Emily stamped on Paul’s foot, her face bearing not a hint of malice, but plenty of mischief. It’s not like any of them could even feel pain to begin with, and they all knew it. Being living statues had its perks. Despite feeling no pain, Paul lept up on his “good” foot, clutching the stomped one, like any good actor would. As he held it, as it became shorter, his toes becoming pointed, just like his fingers had. Both his legs got subtly shorter with each bounce, and for a moment, it seemed he would lose his balance, but a long, thick, wooden tail stretched out behind him, breaking his fall. The green paint spread all over his body as his other foot shifted to match his first.
While Paul was busy flailing around, Emily took a walnut that may or may not have been on the stage floor a moment ago, and placed it between Todd’s teeth. Todd feigned confusion for the audience, but he’d done this act dozens of times before; even though the shook up their routines with various changes, big and small each time, not one show had gone wrong yet! He wasn’t worried about a chipped tooth, or any meaningful damage being done. And even if any of them could be hurt, Emily and Paul were the last creatures on earth that would consider truly hurting him, and he felt the same for them. Emily bopped him on the top of the head, driving his two front teeth into the nut as they turned brown and doubled in size, causing the shell to split in two. He spit the shell out with a look of disgust as his eyes grew larger, turning black. The red paint covered much of the squirrel’s head as it started to round out as well. His nose fused with his jaw, becoming a bit wider as his snout extended forward a couple inches. His ears, in contrast with his siblings, grew a little wider, while naturally taking the cute, circular shape expected of most rodents.
Emily covered her beak with her hand and mimed a giggle, while her completely wooden brothers put on their best frustrated face. The red squirrel grabbed his sister’s left arm, and the alligator grabbed her right. She appeared to silently gasp in horror, but all of them knew this was the eagle’s favorite part of the act. The two threw her into the air, and her arms widened and flattened into the shape of wings on the way up. Countless etchings were made in her changed appendages, giving them the look of feathers, just like in her tail. Not that the audience could tell, with her flapping them, keeping her suspended near the roof of the tent, as her black dress changed to black paint, and spread all over her body, shifting its color to white on her head and tail feathers, and yellow on her beak. She looked down below at Paul, his jaws wide open, clearly conveying an expectation for the bird to fall into his gaping maw.
The children laughed at Paul as he opened his eyes and shut his jaw, looking around for his prey. He swiveled his lengthy jaw this way and that as he looked, accidentally smacking Todd across the stage with it. The squirrel picked himself up off the floor with his big tail, and ran up to his brother again. Paul, having finally looked up, saw Emily above him, and stamped his feet, before turning to Todd with a scowl. Todd pointed to himself with an inquisitive look, then gave his best innocent expression.
While Paul mimed a frustrated rant to his brother, Emily landed behind Paul. The five furthest feathers on each of her wings curled to mimic the movements of human fingers, as she tapped the alligator on the shoulder. Paul turned around, his tail knocking Todd off his feet again as he did. Seeing Emily again, the gator struck his most fearsome face, only to quickly stumble back after a poke to the eyes.
While Paul fell flat on his face once again, his jaw comically keeping the rest of his head in the air, Emily approached Todd as he lay on the ground, preparing a trick for him, by the looks of it. Only this time, she was the one caught by surprise, as Todd’s tail wormed its way between her legs, then catapulted her into the air.
Rushing back toward Paul, Todd jumped atop his head. The dazed alligator unsteadily rose up to a sitting position, arms curled around his knees. Todd took a squatting position, to better stabilize himself on his brother’s swaying head, then held his tail up above his own head. Emily began making her tumbling descent from her early launch, her trajectory putting her right above her brothers. Just as it looked that she would certainly crash, she spread her wings, righting herself in mid-air. Her talons landed deftly atop her brother’s “fluffy” tail, and she left her wings spread wide, as the three of them froze in place, once more forming the totem pole that had been brought onstage during Chelly’s act. All fitting together flawlessly like pieces of a puzzle.
The crowd clapped, and the three bipedal animals each extended a hand, signing “thank you” in sign language, before resuming their original position once more. Katie was very impressed by the whole thing. She had thought it odd that the totem pole brought on stage alongside the bars didn’t see any use during Chelly’s act. Then, she and the rest of the audience had been shocked to see the three animals separate, get up, and start moving on their own after Chelly had left. That would have been plenty of a trick enough on its own, but then the three wooden creatures had done put together a slapstick act that had the crowd in fits of giggles. She couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for them in the next act. She was so glad the three seats in front of her had been unoccupied. She wouldn’t have wanted to miss this.
Spectra patted the three statues individually. “Glad to see you’ve enjoyed the silent slapstick of our very own Totem Trio: Tott, Em, and Paul!” Chelly still had to do her best to restrain a groan.
“I feel I can safely say they are glad to be here, and are happy you all are enjoying yourselves,” He continued, before picking up the pole, and setting it besides Rosewood.
“You did great out there, as usual,” Chelly complimented the three. They made no response. The other performers were used to it by now, though. The three loved to stay “in-character” until their act, only occasionally moving their arms to sign the answer to a question or two. Or to frighten lone passers-by when they were placed outside the entrance to a venue, by suddenly making faces or shifting positions when only one human was looking.
They may not have been officially listed as performers like Rosewood, Penny, or Chelly were, due to the nature of their act requiring the audience think they were simply a prop, at first, but the rest of the troupe still treated them like family, even if they were on the quiet side. They seemed to communicate with each other just fine, even when not using sign language, and, few though they may have been, the three Totems did have a few subtle differences in personality, even if they were so subtle only the other members of the troupe really got to see it, so Chelly guessed they weren’t too lonely most of the time.
Tott, Em, and Paul examined the audience. Very nice showing today. Even without speaking, the statues knew that each of their siblings were thinking the same thing. They had all been made at the same time, and shared the same experiences since “birth,” even if through different eyes. They were no hive-mind, but they never had a reason to differ on any opinion or plan, either. A full house, minus six seats. They were feeling pretty proud of their act today; the crowd really ate it up. Still, all of their troupe had gone on stage. Looks like it would be time for the first round of audience participation soon.