Really Strange Stuff

=::= Serenity's PoV =::=

"All right, it looks like everyone's here," I announced after checking my computer screen. "Can you all hear me ok?"

Callie replied, "Sure can Sere. Loud and clear."

I gave the calico a look, "Well of course you can, you're sitting right next to me."

Then Bailey grinned as she chimed in, "I can hear you ok here too Serenity."

"Very funny you two," I grumbled as rolled my eyes and twitched my tail. "How about everyone else? Gorgonz-Hola, Fluffkat, can you two hear us all ok?"

Fluffkat responded first, "Yeah I can hear you all just fine."

"You feeling ok there Fluffkat?" Callie asked, while her ears drooped a little. "Your voice sounds a little off."

My cohost was right, there was something up with our newest moderator's voice, like the pitch and timbre were a little different from what we were used to hearing.

There was a slight pause before Fluffkat responded, "Yeah I'm fine. I guess this is as good a time as any to let you all know, I took advantage of Kid Chaos's offer on last week's stream. Got myself an enchanted plushie, and now I really am a fluffy cat."

"I'm also officially coming out as non-binary, and I've started using they-them pronouns. You can all still call me Kat though," they added.

Bailey replied, "Ok Kat, congratulations! And thanks for letting us know."

I nodded, "Yeah congrats Kat!"

"That's awesome news Kat!" Callie agreed. "So you're a fluffy cat-kin now?"

They sounded happy as they responded, "Yeah I sure am. My plushie's a very fluffy white Persian. It's pretty damn cool."

That got me smiling, "Being a long-haired floof is nice, but the grooming takes a lot more time. In either form."

"Sure does," Kat laughed, "But it's worth it!"

Then Callie asked, "Hey Gorgon, you there buddy? We haven't heard from you at all yet."

After a longer pause a very unfamiliar voice responded. It sounded high-pitched and feminine, and the reply seemed almost timid, "Yeah Callie. I'm here. I know I sound really different though..."

"Oh wow!" our calico's eyes widened and her tail swished a few times. "So you got yourself a plushie last week too huh?"

Our original moderator replied, "Yeah. So um, I guess like Kat I'm officially coming out? I'm a girl, my pronouns are she-her. And I'm actually thinking of changing my handle? The whole 'big scary gorgon' thing doesn't really work for me anymore."

"Although I still love gorgonzola cheese," she added quietly.

A moment later a picture popped up in the private moderator's chat on my screen, depicting an adorably tiny mouse-girl. She had dark eyes, dark skin, and her chestnut-brown hair was in a cute little bob. Poking up out of the hair was a pair of large mouse ears, coated in a slightly lighter brown fur. She was in a massively-oversized hoodie, and she had the end of her long mousey tail draped over one shoulder so it was visible in the selfie.

"That's me," she announced. "Oh and my new name is Mei."

Callie was the first to respond, "Wow Mei, you look adorable!"

"Super cute!" Kat chimed in.

Bailey and I both agreed wholeheartedly. Then I asked, "Mei you said you were thinking of changing your handle. If you come up with a new one, do you want us to make some sort of announcement on the next show?"

"How 'bout you Kat?" my cohost added, "Do y'all want us to say anything about your new pronouns?"

Kat replied first, "Nah, there's no need to make a big deal out of it. All I ask is you use my new pronouns if you mention me on the stream, but you definitely don't need to announce anything."

"Same," Mei agreed. "Actually I don't know if this would be ok but maybe you could just like, pretend 'Gorgonz-Hola' has left or something? Then I could 'start' as a new person with my new handle?"

She sighed, "I know you probably all think I'm being silly or a coward or something like that... I just don't want to deal with people comparing the new me to my old persona. Or about the fact that I'm a girl now. I just kind of want to be Mei and not have to talk or think about who I was before."

"That's totally ok," I assured her. "And I don't think you're silly or a coward, Mei. There's no requirement for trans people to be out or public, and there's nothing wrong with going stealth and just living your life."

Callie nodded, "Right on."

"Thank you," our mousegirl moderator mumbled. "In that case I'm going to go ahead and change my handle now."

The new name popped up on my screen a moment later, and I smiled. "All right! So we've got Mei-Maus and FluffKat here with us in the private moderator's chat, how about we get on with the meeting?"

"Mei, Kat, you both wanted to talk to us," I continued, "So what's on your minds?"

Callie added, "I'm guessing it's about the live stream last week?"

It was Saturday afternoon now, and even though a full eight days had passed since we had Cassandra and Kaylee on the show we were still dealing with the fall-out from that episode. The support kept on rolling in, but the three of us hadn't entirely gotten over the fact that we were magically hacked after that big interview.

"That's right," Kat agreed. "I know I've only been a mod for a few months, but in that time it's been getting progressively harder to keep up. And that last live stream was completely overwhelming."

They continued, "It's not just the stream chat or episode comments either. The RSS discord has been active almost non-stop for some time now, and it's getting to the point where it's practically becoming a full-time job trying to stay on top of the moderation."

Mei agreed, "Like Kat said it's only been a couple months since we brought them on, but we already need to look at adding more moderators again. And we need to do it before the next show, because at this pace one of us is going to burn out pretty quickly. Maybe even both of us."

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention," I responded.

"And thanks for all your hard work," Callie added. "We couldn't do it without y'all keeping things civil in the chat."

Then Bailey asked, "So do we have any candidates in mind? People we could approach, to see if they're interested in joining the mod team?"

"Yeah," Mei replied. "Kat and I have a couple names we think would be good for the role."

She continued, "So first up is GrumpyDave. He's been a subscriber for at least four years, he's been on the discord just as long. I'm pretty sure he's an older guy, and well educated. Based on some of the stuff he's shared I think he might even be a prof at some university? He's good with the noobs, and knowledgable about the subject matter."

"I'd like to nominate Black Rose," Kat suggested. "No idea how old she is or where in the world she's located, but she's been around in the chat longer than I have. And I've seen her on social media, in the RSS hashtag. She seems responsible and witty, and when there's hecklers or trolls she's pretty good about dealing with them even without the mod powers."

Mei finished with one more nomination, "Last up is Dr. Ghost Witch. Same as the other two, they've been around in the chat a long time and they're good with noobs as well as trolls. And another thing to consider, they're in Australia which means they might be able to provide mod coverage for the parts of the day when me and Kat aren't available."

"Actually I think GrumpyDave is in Europe," Kat added, "So that's another plus in terms of alternate time zones."

I glanced at my girlfriends then nodded, "Alright Mei, Kat. Thanks for the recommendations. Callie and Bailey and I will have a look at all three of them, and we'll go from there."

"Was there anything else you two wanted to discuss?" I added.

Kat answered, "Not really. Like Mei said, we're hoping we can get at least a couple new mods on board as soon as possible. Considering the next Council episode is only a week away, right?"

"Yeah," Callie nodded. "One week from today, next Saturday night at nine CST."

"Actually there's something else I'd like to bring up," Mei said, and once again she sounded a little timid or nervous.

I responded, "Sure thing Mei, what's on your mind?"

"And there's no reason to be anxious," Bailey added. "We're here because we want to hear what you and Kat have to say."

The new mousegirl joked, "Thanks Bailey, but it's hard not to be nervous? I'm just a little mousie, in a chat room with three cats and a fox."

That got some laughs and giggles out of the rest of us, before our mouse got serious again.

"The thing is, I'm worried that the channel might be starting to lean into a new direction," Mei explained. "Something that I'm not at all comfortable with."

She continued, "It's been kind of slow and subtle over the past half year, but in retrospect it's starting to feel like a trend? And I really need you folks to clarify whether or not this is happening."

"It started with the plushies," she explained. "Then you got all that information on the Council from the same person. Then Bailey got a plushie too. And now you've had Kid Chaos on the stream, and you said over and over last week how you wanted to get her and Kaylee back for more interviews. And that you could do entire shows out of everything they said?"

Mei sighed, "Finding out last week that Kid Chaos claims she's a goddess, the whole thing just kind of feels a little culty, if you know what I mean? And I know this sounds hypocritical of me since I got and used one of her plushies, but if RSS is going to turn into a rah-rah Cassandra praise the chaos show then I'm going to have to reconsider my participation. Because I'm extremely not into that sort of culty religious stuff."

Hearing her say all that left me feeling a little shocked. Not because she was wrong, but because she might be right. And even if we weren't going to transition RSS into a praise the chaos religious show, I could see how people might get that impression. And from the way Callie was frowning while Bailey looked thoughtful I got the feeling neither of my girlfriends had considered that possibility either.

"Thanks for bringing that up Mei," I finally responded. "That's honestly not something I'd even considered, and I don't think Callie or Bailey had thought about it either. It's definitely not something we're planning, our goal for Really Strange Stuff hasn't changed. We're here to uncover the supernatural and show the world what's really out there."

Kat commented, "I hadn't really thought of it like that either? But now that Mei's mentioned it, I can see how it might come across that way. Especially in light of all the stuff that was mentioned on the last live stream. It's good to hear that you're not planning to take the show in that direction, but maybe there's stuff you could do to make it more clear that's not where you're going."

Mei agreed, "I know I'm just a mod and this isn't really my place, but it'd be nice to see the show return to its roots a bit more? Like that haunted hotel thing you did in December? It was a nice break from all the Council business."

"I guess I'm just suggesting maybe throw in the odd live stream or regular episode that's got nothing to do with the Council or Kid Chaos?" the mousegirl added.

My girlfriends and I exchanged another quick look, then Callie responded "Ok Mei, thanks for the comments and the suggestion. That's definitely another thing Sere and Bails and I have to discuss."

"Yeah thanks again Mei for bringing this to our attention," I nodded. "Was there anything else?"

Kat spoke up again, "This isn't really a mod thing, but we're here so I figure what the heck why not ask. What really happened to the stream last week? I'm no expert but I know my way around computers, enough to know how improbable it is for someone to pull off a hack of that scale. You're talking about not just your computer but the streaming site as well. And purging all the comments from social media seems almost impossible, especially in that sort of time frame. That's like, international level state actor stuff."

"And if Cassandra really is a goddess then couldn't she do something to fix all that?" the cat-kin added. "Couldn't she restore the missing stream, or bring back all the comments?"

After a slight pause Bailey answered, "I'm not sure how much of this is safe to talk about, so please keep it to yourselves? But the bottom line is you're right, that wasn't a normal hack. And we've been informed that we weren't the target. Someone wanted to silence Cassandra, not us."

Our two mods were both quiet for a few seconds after hearing that. It was the mouse girl who spoke up next, and she'd obviously made the same logical deduction that my girlfriends and I all came to earlier.

"If Cassandra really is a goddess then it stands to reason that she's not the only one out there," Mei stated softly.

"Holy shit," Kat half-whispered. "So you were hacked by a god? Someone who wants to stop Kid Chaos?"

Our mousey mod added, "That's another reason to back off from the rah-rah Cassandra stuff. If you believe the myths and legends, whenever gods get in a fight it's always the mortals who suffer."

I sighed, "We've been thinking the same thing Mei. Anyways like Bailey said, please keep all this stuff to yourselves?"

"We're still committed to getting the truth out there," Callie stated firmly. Then she admitted, "But we also have a responsibility to try and do that safely."

That seemed to be the end of the discussion, neither of our mods had any more questions or comments. Before signing off Kat shared a selfie with the rest of us, so we got to see their new looks with the fuzzy white ears and long fluffy white tail. Their frizzy shoulder-length hair was a matching white, and framed an attractive face.

Then we bid our two mods a good day, thanked them again for their time and all their hard work, and finally closed the voice chat session.