Club Luna

=::= Cass's PoV =::=

"It looks busy again today," Kaylee commented as we pulled into the parking lot. "I wonder if that's because of March Break?"

I shrugged, "I think this place is always busy. It was like this last time we were here, and that was during a blizzard."

"At least the weather's nicer today," I added.

Fortunately there was a spot available around the side of the building, so Kaylee got the Lunamobile parked then the two of us emerged. And while the weather was better than last time, it was still pretty cold out so we both hurried around to the front of the restaurant then in through the doors.

Sure enough the place looked full, but at least there wasn't a line-up waiting for tables.

"Do you think they're here yet?" my girlfriend asked as she stretched up on tip-toes to try and spot our friends.

My other self already had the answer though, so I passed that on. "Cassandra says no, otherwise she'd have sensed them when we got here."

Just then the older waitress came by with a tray of dirty dishes. She was wearing a pair of glasses today, with small gold-coloured frames. As she moved past us she gave Kaylee a double-take, probably due to her ears and tails. She didn't comment though, instead she gave us a harried smile and told us, "Have a seat dears. There's an empty table over to the right, next to the windows."

"Thank you ma'am," I responded.

Our girlfriend attracted even more stares and funny looks from the people we moved past on the way to our table, and I heard a few of them commenting quietly about her 'costume' or asking how she got the tails to move like that.

When we got to the table we both sat down together on the same side, Kaylee was next to the window while I took the aisle seat. And just a few seconds after we were seated Cassandra let me know the others had arrived, so I looked back towards the door. Sure enough Amy and Tess had just appeared, so I waved to them.

Amy waved back, then the two headed over to join us at our table. Tess took the other window seat opposite Kaylee, while Amy sat facing me.

"Good morning you two," the silver-haired goddess greeted us. "I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long?"

My girlfriend shook her head, "Nah, we only got here a few seconds before you. We haven't even ordered drinks or anything yet."

Tess greeted us both as well then commented, "Amy and I watched that stream the other night. You revealed a lot more than I think either of us were expecting."

"Yeah," Amy nodded in agreement. "I assume you haven't had any fall-out from that, otherwise you probably wouldn't be here for brunch this morning?"

My other self and I had a very quick internal conversation then I relayed for her, "We can talk about that in a bit, if that's ok? Let's wait until we've ordered and got something to drink before we get into the heavy stuff."

The other goddess and her girlfriend exchanged a worried look. Then the tall redhead asked, "There's heavy stuff? That doesn't sound good."

I grimaced slightly, but before either Kaylee or I could reply our waitress arrived next to the table.

"It's you!" she gasped happily, as her floofy black tail started wagging. "You're back! I mean, welcome back! What can I get you all to drink today? And would any of you like to see a menu?"

Both my girlfriend and I couldn't help smiling, while Amy and Tess looked more like they wanted to face-palm. According to her name-tag this was Krissy, the same waitress we had last time we were here. Except she looked like a whole new person compared to the first time we saw her.

She was now a petite ravenette foxgirl, with tall black fuzzy ears and a big floofy black tail. Her eyes were amber, with vertical pupils. And she looked and sounded extremely happy about all of those things. She was dressed in a pair of comfy-looking sneakers and black leggings, a knee-length black skirt, and a white long-sleeve blouse. And she had an off-white apron around her narrow waist.

I smiled, "Hello Krissy. Could I have a glass of orange juice please?"

"Same for me," Kaylee added, while her tails swished around happily behind her.

Amy gave me another look, before she and Tess both ordered coffee. Then the tall redhead added, "I'm ready to order now if everyone else is?"

The rest of us were as well, so we went ahead and ordered while Krissy wrote it all down on her notepad. Tess wanted the eggs benedict combo again, while Amy just asked for a couple chocolate-chip pancakes. And Kaylee must have enjoyed what she had last time since she asked for the same thing, a kids-sized order of banana pancakes. And I just went with plain old bacon and eggs, with toast and home fries.

"I'll be right back with your drinks!" our foxgirl waitress smiled as she headed away.

"I'd almost forgotten you gave her that plushie," Amy commented after Krissy was gone. "I suppose she'll need some magical help with her ID? Or have you already taken care of that for her?"

My other half and I had another quick conversation before I replied, "We haven't. But Cassandra says Krissy's not that desperate anyways? She already did the ID stuff when she started to transition last year, so it's just the photo part that's wrong."

"Maybe you should offer to help with that regardless?" Tess suggested. "Considering you're not keeping any secrets anymore."

Amy nodded, "Right. After Friday night's stream I imagine you're going to start getting a lot more people contacting you directly, either on social media or through prayer."

I grimaced again, but stayed quiet since Krissy was already back with our beverages. Her tail was still wagging as she set out Kaylee's and my juice and the two coffee cups, along with a bowl full of those little containers of milk and cream and another dish full of little packets of sugar.

"Here you go," she smiled. Then she looked at me and added, "And I just wanted to thank you again! I should have said that before, sorry. I'm really really grateful for everything!"

That made me blush, but I smiled back and told her "You're welcome. I'm glad you're happy."

The foxgirl was practically beaming while her tail kept wagging, but fortunately she was busy enough she had to hurry off to deal with other customers.

Amy and Tess exchanged another look, then after a sip of her coffee the silver-haired goddess commented, "I'm still not entirely comfortable with your methods Cassandra, but I can't fault the results. Out of all the plushie users who've turned to me for help with their documentation, not a single one has been unhappy with their transformation."

"So you mentioned there was some heavy stuff to discuss this morning?" Tess asked. "Has something come up since Friday night?"

This time my other half and I agreed to trade places, and I felt that calm confidence settle over me as Cassandra took control. Rather than let myself completely fade into the background though I stayed present, so I could listen in on the conversation.

"As you know the show itself went well," she told the other goddess and her girlfriend. "By the end of the night I'd gained over six hundred new followers. They didn't all use their plushies right away, but as of this morning there's more than four hundred new demi-humans in the world."

Kaylee pointed out, "That's still not even a rounding error compared to the number of humans out there."

We nodded and Cassandra continued, "Indeed. But every little bit helps, and just by existing they'll be further spreading the news to anyone who sees them. And of course all those new worshippers will also be telling their friends and family and social circles about the existence of magic and Kid Chaos."

Amy and Tess both sipped their coffee as they listened quietly. Then the other goddess slowly shook her head as she commented, "Six hundred worshippers in a single evening. You're growing by leaps and bounds."

"I'm still nothing compared to the mainstream deities," Cassandra replied. "I don't even compare to some of the old classical deities, who still have followings today."

Amethyst shrugged, "At the rate you're going you'll be on par with them soon enough. From what I've heard if you were a normal goddess you'd probably be having trouble staying on the mortal realm already, with the number of followers you've got now."

That made me cringe, while my other half just smiled like it was no big deal.

"You still haven't said what's gone wrong," Tess pointed out. Then she teased, "If we were having this conversation in my office I'd be asking why you were avoiding the subject."

I wasn't sure how I felt about that 'tease', considering she used to be our therapist. But Cassandra took it all in stride. My other half replied, "I wasn't avoiding it, merely setting the stage. But fine, the problem arose some time after Kaylee and I left the studio."

"As I suspected the status quo did not trigger during the stream," she continued. "There were no technical problems, the show went off without a hitch, it was a great success. But a few hours after we left, that's when it took effect. The stream was purged from the internet, along with any mention of its existence. Hundreds, if not thousands of social media posts vanished. And the raw data was purged from the podcasters' computers."

Kaylee interjected, "I set up my computer to record it, and that worked. It didn't get wiped either, so I still have a copy of the stream. But no other copies survived."

Cassandra nodded, "So it seems like the status quo can't interfere with me in real-time, but it certainly did its best to clean up afterwards."

"My main concern now is that if we try this again it might respond more harshly against anyone involved," she added with a sigh. "The podcasters are eager to keep working with me, despite any potential risks. In fact this experience has only inspired them to work even harder to get the message out."

Amy frowned, "How so? Apart from doing more streams, what else do they think they can do to help?"

"They've asked or offered to become prophets of chaos," Cassandra replied. "Or disciples maybe? I'm not sure yet whether or not to accept their offer, and what form that would take if I do accept them."

I felt myself cringing again internally, while on the outside we remained as calm and confident as ever.

Meanwhile Kaylee's tails were swishing around as she stated, "I feel like I should have that sort of position? Like Tess is high priestess for Amy. If you're going to have prophets and disciples, I should be in on that too. I can definitely spread a lot more chaos around than I'm already doing!"

By that point Tess looked kind of awkward while Amy actually facepalmed. Then Cassandra suggested, "We can talk more about that in a moment. Here comes our breakfast."

Sure enough Krissy arrived beside our table a couple seconds later, with a big tray of food in hand. And my other half swapped places with me again, so I could take over and enjoy breakfast while she monitored things from inside.

"Here you go!" our foxgirl waitress announced with a wide smile, as she began setting out plates in front of everyone. Then she asked, "Can I get anyone more coffee? Or juice? Or anything else?"

Both Amy and Tess asked for refills on their coffee, but neither Kaylee or I were ready for more juice yet.

Before the foxgirl waitress left she hesitated, "Oh um, sorry if this is weird but would you mind if my dad came out and spoke with you at some point, before you leave?"

Amy frowned, "Is there a problem? He's not upset about your transformation is he?"

"You said your dad runs the kitchen right? Or he owns the restaurant?" Tess added.

Krissy smiled and shook her head as she replied, "Dad owns the place, and she's the chef. And no, she's not unhappy at all! She's as grateful for what you people did for us as I am, and she'd really like to thank you in person."

Tess raised an eyebrow as she asked, "She?"

"Yeah!" the foxgirl nodded happily. "Anyhow you folks enjoy your breakfast, I'll be back in a second with more coffee!"

As she headed away both Amethyst and Theresa gave me a hard look. The other goddess asked, "I thought you only gave her one plushie. Did you leave an extra one for her dad?"

"No," I mumbled as I blushed and cringed into my hoodie. "I gave Krissy a plushie. But Cassandra um, gave her dad a miracle of her own."

"Food's getting cold," Kaylee pointed out, as she started on her banana pancakes.

Amy and Tess exchanged another look, then Amy shrugged and the two of them quietly began to eat as well. I did too, although I wasn't actually all that hungry. Still, the bacon was nice and crispy, and my eggs were sunny-side up so I could dip my toast in the yolks.

Krissy came by with a fresh pot of coffee a moment later. She topped up the two coffee cups while we were all eating, before moving on to do the same for some of the other patrons. And for the next few minutes the four of us were just focused on our brunch, which meant I was spared having to participate in any more awkward conversations.

Unfortunately the food could only last for so long, and eventually Amy and Tess were both ready to resume the earlier discussion. So I slipped into the background while Cassandra came forward once again.

"Going back to the situation with your reporter friends, what are your plans?" Amethyst asked after another sip of her coffee. "I know Friday's show was a big success, but if there's a chance of putting those people in danger I don't imagine you'll want to continue doing that."

Then she frowned as she added, "Or are you seriously thinking about doing the disciple thing with them? And if so, how would that even work?"

We sat back in our chair as Cassandra seemed to contemplate the questions for a few moments. Then my other half replied, "I certainly don't want to put anyone at risk. Especially not worshippers, and I wouldn't want to see harm come to the Really Strange Stuff crew because of my actions. Just like I don't want to put either of you at risk, or any of our other friends."

"Having said that," she continued in a thoughtful tone, "I think perhaps it's time Kaylee and I paid someone special another visit."

"You mean that secret ally you still haven't told us anything about?" Tess asked.

Kaylee responded, "They asked us not to share any details about them yet."

"That's who you're talking about seeing, right?" she added as she looked to Cassandra and I.

We nodded, "Correct. I'm not sure if they'll have any specific input relating to the deleted video files, but they might. I'm also going to talk to them about the idea of disciples or prophets too. Perhaps they can suggest something we can do to keep our other allies safe."

Amy said, "Well let us know how it goes. Assuming that's not another secret. Tess and I are looking forward to hearing about that last point."

Before Cassandra could reply we all realized someone was standing next to our table, and at first glance they looked a lot like our waitress. Except there were no fuzzy ears and no floofy tail. Plus she had normal green eyes rather than amber vulpine eyes. And finally she was dressed differently, in light grey leggings, a short-sleeve white tee, and she had a white apron around her narrow waist.

Despite all those differences, she still looked enough like Krissy she could easily pass as our waitress's sister. She was the same height, had the same build, the same long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and she was about the same age too.

"Hello there," the young woman greeted us. "Sorry to intrude. My name's Maia, and I just really wanted to thank you all for everything you did for both Krissy and I. Your money's no good here, you all eat free any time you like."

Amy and Tess both just stared at the young woman who was Krissy's father, while Kaylee and us both smiled.

My other half replied, "Hello Maia, it's wonderful to meet you. My name is Cassandra, but I'm also known as Kid Chaos. And there's no need to do us any favours. Knowing you and Krissy are happy is all the thanks we need."