Anyone watching Amity Cole's backstage warmups without knowing what she was doing would probably ask, [i]What the hell is she doing?[/i] Well, the answer was simple. In Ami's right hand was a large puppet; large enough to reach from her elbow to a short way over the tip of her fingers. The inside had a pull string to move the guy's (tree's?) lower jaw, and was supported by a wireframe. So why was she stretching a seemingly random selection of words, with such a deep, gruff voice? Well, the voice she gave this particular puppet was perhaps the deepest and gruffest one. For somebody who normally has a higher-toned, girlier voice, it takes some warming up to get it done.

That, and it'd been a while since she'd done ventriloquism. Hand puppets and marionettes had been the big thing for her the last few years, so it was also an exercise to get herself back to where she could fluently speak without moving her lips. Not the easiest of tasks, even with her poker-faced expressions. She was already planning out the routine in her head, but even the best-planned ventriloquism loses its meaning if your lips keep moving when they shouldn't. The moment she caught wind of a talent show, Ami had to sign up. Performing in front of others was loads more fun than performing alone.