Really Strange Stuff

=::= Bailey's PoV =::=

"I'm Cassandra," the brunette teen stated, "The Goddess of Chaos."

My eyes flicked back and forth between my three monitors, while my ears folded back and my tail tucked itself down under my chair. My main screen was divided into sections, showing me the feeds from each of our four cameras. And the screen to my right mirrored what was actually going out live on the stream.

It was the screen on my left that caught my attention though. It was set up vertically, and currently displayed our stream's chat on the top half while the bottom half was on our social media feed. That way I could track our mentions and the RSS hashtag with just a glance. And both of them had been on fire for the past ten minutes.

We already had a respectable number of viewers tuned in to the stream at that point, but those numbers skyrocketed after the second big reveal. That's when Cassandra announced that she was Kid Chaos, the person behind those enchanted plushies. Since then the chat was scrolling off the screen faster than I could keep up with it, while the number of viewers steadily increased.

Now she'd just told all our viewers that she was a goddess, and the chat was going absolutely ballistic. Meanwhile our viewer count reached a new record high and was still climbing, and our social media was going wild too.

"Wow," Serenity responded after a suitably dramatic pause. Her ears were folded back while her long fluffy black tail puffed out a little. Then she added, "Ok, you can't drop that bomb on us and not expect a load of follow-up questions."

Callie's ears flicked and her tail twitched as she nodded, "I've probably got a dozen in mind already. And I'm sure our viewers will have even more!"

My ears were still folded back as I found myself nodding in agreement. There were literally dozens of comments and questions hitting the chat every second, and unfortunately they weren't all positive. I tapped a control on my AV panel, and my face appeared on the stream in the lower left corner as a foxcam inset.

Then with a slight grimace I said, "Callie's right. Viewers are excited, but at least half of the comments I'm seeing are asking for some kind of proof?"

"And it looks like a lot of people just flat-out don't believe it at all," I added as my grimace shifted into a cringe. I gave our guests an apologetic look as I also mentioned, "Gorgonz-Hola and Fluffkat are having a hard time keeping up, but some of the comments are outright abusive. Not a lot, but it looks like a few of our viewers are displaying some religious intolerance. Uh, basically negative stuff about demons, and some other stuff about 'false idols' I guess."

Serenity frowned as she straightened her back and set her shoulders. She stated firmly, "Ok that sort of thing is not tolerated on our stream no matter what the topic. You people should know better. We don't allow any bigotry or hatred or anything like that here, ever."

"Cassandra, Kaylee, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the three of us and the rest of our viewers," Callie added. "Like my cohost said, we don't condone or tolerate anything like that."

Fortunately our guests took it all in stride. In fact the young brunette just looked mildly amused at the whole thing. She responded in that same calm relaxed tone, "That's fine, we know it's not on the three of you. And the majority of your viewers seem like decent people."

"As for the naysayers I'd just like to make one comment," she added with a slightly mischievous look in her eyes. Then she looked into the camera again and stated, "I'm sure a lot of you people have been told at one time or another not to use a god or goddess's name in vain? The reason for that is when you say our name we can hear you. Which means, for example, I know exactly what Josh Allen of Hurley Wisconsin just said about me. And Josh, I know who you are and where you live."

The little demonic foxgirl's tails all swished around as she teased, "Sleep well tonight Josh!"

Hearing that exchange sent a little chill up my spine, and both my girlfriends and I all exchanged an uneasy glance. None of us had known or expected our guests to do anything like that, and we hadn't known what she said about hearing whenever people said her name either.

Then again, like all our live streams tonight's show was basically unscripted. All we'd done was prepare a list of talking-points and questions, which we ran past our guests when they arrived earlier this evening. Apart from that the whole thing was completely ad-libbed, with my girlfriends winging it and our guests responding in kind.

Except this was one thing we really should have discussed ahead of time. Having a real live goddess on the show was great, but the idea of her possibly smiting a viewer during the stream was not good for publicity. And it might get us banned from the streaming service too.

Serenity was obviously thinking the same thing as me, and fortunately she spoke up before I had to. "Uh, Cassandra? I hate to have to say this but our rules apply to everyone, including you. And even vague or veiled threats still count as threats. So maybe you could walk that back for us?"

"Of course," the teenage goddess agreed immediately. "My apologies Serenity, and to all the viewers. And Josh Allan of Hurley Wisconsin, I was only joking. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

Then Cassandra smiled as she suggested, "Tell you what? How about I do something special, to make it up to you and your viewers? A lot of people wanted proof, so why don't I provide some?"

"Heck yeah!" Callie responded with a wide grin, while her calico ears and tail all stood upright in excitement. "What did you have in mind? Some sort of on-screen demonstration of magic?"

The young brunette smirked, "Yes and no."

"All you viewers at home, or wherever you happen to be right now?" she added as she turned to face the camera again, "If any of you would like to get your hands on one of my enchanted plushies, here's your chance. Just ask for one, right now. Say it out loud. 'Cassandra please send me a plushie.' Or you can address me as Kid Chaos, I'll hear you either way. If you want something specific, say so. Cats and foxes are popular, but I'm also partial to bunnies. Dogs, wolfs, ponies, mice, and squirrels are also good choices."

Once again my girlfriends and I exchanged an uncertain look while the goddess was talking. We had no idea what to expect, or where our guest was going with this. I found it hard to believe that she was actually going to send potentially hundreds of people plush toys right now on the stream.

Except on my social media monitor the feed was going ballistic again, and people were already starting to post pictures of plushies that had magically appeared in front of them just moments ago. Same with our stream's chat, people were reacting to Cassandra's demonstration of real live magic happening in their own homes.

"I don't..." I mumbled as I stared wide-eyed at what was happening online.

It took me a few seconds to set things up on my computer, then I switched the stream over to a screen grab from social media. I'd hastily blacked out the user names and profile pictures, but left the time stamps intact. Then I added my foxcam inset as I said, "It's really happening! Plushies are magically appearing for everyone who asks!"

Callie and Serenity stared at their monitor for a second or two, then they both scrambled to grab their own devices. Soon the tall sexy ravenette was scrolling through countless posts on social media while the cute busty calico was trying to catch up with the fire-hose of comments flooding our chat.

"This is incredible!" Callie reacted. Her ears perked up and her tail started twitching around in excitement as she exclaimed, "Cassandra, Goddess of Chaos, is performing miracles right here right now, live on our stream!"

Serenity nodded slowly but she seemed to be a little less excited and a little more awed. Her ears were folded back while her tail remained puffed up as she asked our guest, "How many? And how did you do all this while just sitting there? We didn't even see you do anything..."

"It's actually not all that many yet," Cassandra replied with a little shrug. "Only about two hundred and fifty, but the number's still going up. By the way my offer's good for the duration of the stream, so any late arrivals who are just catching up will have the opportunity to get their own enchanted plushie."

Kaylee added with a smirk and a matter-of-fact tone, "As for how she did it? She's a Goddess, it's a miracle, what's to explain? It's one of those things Gods are known for, right?"

"Right," Serenity nodded slowly, but it seemed like the tall ravenette was at a loss for words.

Callie was still staring at her phone, captivated by all the activity going on in our chat. And both our guests had gone quiet again too. I didn't know what to do or say either, but I did know that dead air wasn't great for the stream. Even when things were as crazy and exciting as they were tonight.

So I did my inset thing again then tried to sound smooth as I said, "Stay tuned folks, we'll be right back after this short break!"

And with that I cut to one of our pre-recorded promo bits. Our logo came up on the monitor, along with a link to our merch shop. That led into a thirty-second ad flogging all the latest RSS-branded stuff we had for sale.

While that was playing I asked my girlfriends, "Callie, Serenity, maybe you two can push things along to the next topic when we're back from the break?"

"Yeah ok," Serenity nodded. "Good call, thanks for keeping us on track Bailey."

"Yeah thanks Bails," Callie agreed.

I gave them both a smile, then looked to our guests. "How are you two doing? Are you good to answer some more questions on the stream?"

"We're doing fine I think?" Kaylee replied.

Cassandra agreed, "That's why we're here."

"Thank you," I said as I quickly adjusted the cameras.

I made sure camera two was fixed on my girlfriends while camera three was on our guests, and had camera one zoom out to a wide-angle view while I positioned it to fit everyone in the frame at once. And finally as the ad neared its end I gave the others a signal, which ended with me pointing at Serenity as I switched from the merch store link back to a live view.

"Welcome back," the tall sexy catgirl announced with a smooth professional delivery. "For those of you just joining the stream, we're here with our first two guests ever on the live stream. Cassandra Underwood, aka Kid Chaos, aka the Goddess of Chaos, and her girlfriend Kaylee Holt, three-tailed demonic foxgirl."

As she was talking I did a cross-fade to camera three to show our two guests, then faded out to camera one in time to catch my girlfriend's next lines.

"Cassandra already wowed us by performing some miracles," Serenity continued, "And her earlier offer remains in effect for the duration of tonight's stream. Is that right?"

The young goddess agreed, and repeated the offer for any new arrivals who missed it earlier.

Then Callie took over so I switched back to camera two for a few moments while the cute calico said, "So we've established who you are and we've already seen a few examples of what you're capable of. Perhaps you could tell us why you're here?"

"I mean why you're here with us doing this interview," the petite catgirl added. "Although I know a lot of viewers are also wondering why you're here on Earth? As opposed to being in Heaven, or wherever else Gods and Goddesses might hang out."

Cassandra began to respond as I faded back to camera three again, and I decided to just leave it there for a bit. As much as I wanted to keep whoever was talking on the screen I worried people were going to get angry with the way I was bouncing back and forth from one camera to another.

"Maybe we can address that second question later on," the young goddess began, "But for now let's focus on the first one. Why are Kaylee and I here with the three of you? And no offence, but I'm sure some people are wondering, if we wanted to do a live interview why we'd do it here with you three? As opposed to approaching some big national news desk, or some world famous investigative journalist?"

After a brief pause Cassandra continued, "The simple answer is, your goals are in alignment with ours. You want to show the world that magic exists, you want to prove that the supernatural is real and it's out there? We want the same thing. Magic and the supernatural were driven into hiding over a thousand years ago. Nowadays nobody even believes in any of this stuff anymore."

"It's dismissed as nonsense," Kaylee added with a scowl, while her ears folded back and her three tails twitched in irritation. "Anyone who claims it's real is ridiculed then ignored, if not shunned right from the start."

The little demonic foxgirl asked, "I'm sure you three have experienced that yourselves? Even though you're living walking proof, when you're out someplace people don't ask how you got your tails. They ignore you, or act like you're wearing costumes."

Serenity asked, "What about safety concerns? The fact that people ignore us or assume we're doing cosplay feels like it might be a bit safer. I know for a fact organizations like the Council wouldn't be happy about demi-humans like us going around publicly flaunting our existence."

"Security through obscurity is never the best answer," Cassandra stated. "And obscurity goes both ways. As long as society believes you don't exist it can't do anything to help you or protect you. As long as the general public believe you're choosing to dress up and 'act strange' at least some of them will be judging you and blaming you for any abuse you suffer or difficulties you encounter."

She continued, "And that's where my goals move beyond the RSS mission statement. It's not enough to simply make people aware of magic and the supernatural, I want to see these things normalized. I want my supernatural friends to be free to be themselves, proudly and without fear. And I want to see magic returned to the world at large. I'd love to see it taught in schools someday, maybe as part of the high school curriculum? Or at least as a college or university program."

"So that's why I'm here," the goddess wrapped up her answer. "We're on the same page right now, we want the same things as you. And I'm hoping I can convince you and your viewers to keep pushing for more, even after your current goals have been met."

I cut back to camera one so everyone was in the shot, just in time for Serenity's response.

The tall sexy ravenette looked and sounded impressed as she said, "I hope you don't mind me saying, you have some very lofty goals Cassandra. And once again it feels like we could build an entire episode around what you just told us? Maybe we'll look into that in the future, if we can convince you and Kaylee to come back for another interview some time."

"For now though I'd like to focus on something else you said," she continued. "You mentioned some supernatural friends, I'm wondering if you could elaborate on that? Obviously we know about catgirls and foxgirls. And we found proof of werewolves last year while we were in Canada. Now thanks to you two we know Gods and demons also walk the Earth. What other sorts of supernaturals are you friends with? Can you tell us about any of them?"

The teenage goddess seemed to consider that for a moment. Then she replied, "First off I'm not going to out anyone. Looking for the truth is one thing, but invading people's privacy or outing folks without their explicit consent isn't cool. And I don't mind saying, had you outed anyone following your Canada trip we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

She let that sink in for a moment before continuing, "As far as what kinds of supernaturals are out there? Obviously Gods and Goddesses and demons. Angels and cambions are real too, same with nephilim. Werewolfs, shape-shifters, fae and fairies are all real, so are nymphs. In terms of humans who can use magic there's witches, wizards, and necromancers. Sorcery is out there too but it's a lot more rare. And I've also encountered ghosts, they're real as well."

"Don't forget vampires," Kaylee chimed in. "We've met a few of them. And zombies too, they're real."

Cassandra nodded, "Right. Although zombies kind of fall under the necromancy category. They can't exist without someone raising and controlling them."

"Anyways that's probably not even an exhaustive list," the young goddess added. "Those are just the ones Kaylee and I have either encountered personally, or we've heard about from trusted sources."

By the time our guests were finished both my girlfriends had wide smiles on their faces. Callie shook her head, "That's amazing! We've been searching for years for proof of almost all of those supernaturals, and you're calmly telling us you're literally friends with some of them!"

"I don't suppose you could put in a good word for us with some of them?" the cute calico added. Her ears had folded back and she had big pleading eyes as she added, "We'd love to have more guests visit us on the show. Angels, werewolves, fae, shape-shifters, any of them would be great!"

Meanwhile Serenity was slowly shaking her head, "I keep saying this, but it feels like almost everything you two say could be expanded into its own entire show!"

Cassandra had a little amused smile on her face again, but she turned down Callie's request. "Sorry, I can't speak for any other supernaturals."

"We can probably come back for another interview or two though?" Kaylee added, while her tails swished around. "Maybe not every month, but I'm sure Cassandra and I could work something out."

The five of us ended up discussing that for the next few minutes, before Serenity guided the conversation back to the subject of gods and demons and other supernaturals. Unfortunately neither of our guests were prepared to reveal too many secrets, but it was still a good talk. And an excellent show.

By the time we finally wrapped things up Cassandra said she'd given away almost six hundred enchanted plushies, and we'd hit new record numbers on the stream. The chat was still going strong, and our social media numbers looked amazing too.

We ended the stream with another little spectacle, as Cassandra and Kaylee agreed to teleport away live on camera. Our two guests vanished in a swirl of light, then my girlfriends and I bid the viewers a good evening.