Really Strange Stuff

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

Our April live stream went pretty well, I thought. Even though it was another interview, it proved to be a very different show than the one we did in March with Kid Chaos.

Since GrumpyDave was so well-known and well-liked in the RSS community his story hit a lot closer to home for people, at least according to some of the comments we saw. On the other hand it wasn't a fun story. Like he said up front, it wasn't happy and didn't have a happy ending.

After he signed off from the stream Callie and I tried to keep the show going a while longer, by discussing some of the things Dave talked about. We even did a little Q and A with folks in the chat, but in a way it felt a little too disrespectful to be sitting there analyzing the personal story our guest shared with us.

We also had a few viewers point out that Dave's 'all supernaturals can burn in hell' comment was kind of bigoted. We were even asked why we didn't call him out on that, considering we'd asked a literal goddess to take back a questionable comment the month before. My girlfriends and I explained that we let it slip this time because of the emotions in the moment, but we all agreed that it was inappropriate.

Then after we brought the stream to a close the three of us ended up talking about that a little further. Sadly we already knew Dave's feelings on that subject. He'd been very good about keeping those opinions to himself in the chat and on our discord, but he wasn't shy about sharing them in private. That was actually the main reason we decided not to offer him a role as one of our moderators.

Bailey even made the comment while we were shutting down the studio that if the Council hadn't pissed Dave off with their handling of the situation he might have been a candidate to join them. He certainly carried a grudge against supernaturals.

Then Callie pointed out that Dave's story made it seem like he might have had some paranormal potential himself. After all, it sounded like the Council agent may have done something to trick everyone including the bereaved parents that a fake body was the missing boy, while only Dave himself was apparently immune. Bailey and I agreed it was an interesting theory, but not something any of us wanted to pursue.

The bottom line was we'd gone ahead with the interview despite knowing how he felt about supernaturals because we thought his story was worth telling. By the end of the evening though we all agreed that GrumpyDave wouldn't be invited to appear on any future shows.

In fact we were seriously reconsidering whether or not we'd be doing any more live interviews at all, after Cassandra's veiled threat last month and Dave's prejudiced comment this time. We weren't ruling out the possibility of having more guests on the show, but there was a good chance we'd record them in advance so we could edit out any inflammatory comments.

Another thing that came out of the show was my girlfriends and I realized we needed to review our script for episode seven of the Council series. Which kind of sucked since we'd already started recording it a few days earlier.

Still, after hearing about Dave's first-hand experience with the Council, me and Callie agreed we couldn't put out an episode painting those people as the good guys without being sure that really was the case. Just because they wiped out a coven of vampires in Cincinnati didn't mean they actually helped any of the victims, or their families.

So the two of us went back through the old Ohio case files, and sure enough we found the details we'd missed or overlooked in our earlier research. Or not so much overlooked, as we didn't really grasp the significance of it at first. Not until we'd heard GrumpyDave describe his experience with one of their agents when he was a child in Ireland.

That led to another busy week, as we had to make revisions to our script then scrap and re-do some of the segments we'd already recorded.

We couldn't deny that the Council did some good, at least in that case. They exterminated a group of supernatural killers who'd been hunting and preying on humans in and around Cincinnati for years. The problem was they treated the subsequent cover-up as if it were even more important than stopping the killings in the first place.

So families never got closure, witnesses and anyone else who knew what really happened were threatened or discredited, and evidence was destroyed or tampered with. All in the name of secrecy, to keep the public from knowing the truth.

Now it was the middle of April, we were one week away from posting episode six and we were a week behind on our schedule for episode seven. We were all doing our best to catch up though, so we'd be back on track by the end of the month.

"It sure puts a different spin on the episode, doesn't it?" Callie commented after we finished recording the rewritten intro piece.

I nodded, "Yeah it does. It's important though. We need to get this stuff right, if we want to keep bringing the truth to our viewers."

"Oh for sure," my calico cohost agreed. "I'm not complaining, just commenting on how the whole episode's got a different vibe now."

Bailey pointed out, "A lot of this Council stuff has a different vibe, after hearing what Dave went through."

"Did you ever look into the Irish case files?" she added a moment later.

Callie replied, "Dave asked us not to, remember?"

I asked, "You didn't even try and find the case on your own? Just in case he changes his mind?"

The cute calico's cheeks coloured slightly and she cringed, "Ok maybe I did have a quick look at the Ireland files. There's a lot of them though, and without more information it'd be a lot of work to try and find the right one. We really need a name and a location, or at least a specific date."

"We have two names, don't we?" Bailey asked. "Ben and Dave?"

I shook my head, "First names probably won't get us very far. And that's assuming those are even the real names."

The cute foxgirl frowned, "Dave sounded pretty emotional at times during that story, but he never wavered or hesitated over his brother's name. So I'm pretty sure it really was Ben."

"I'll admit it's entirely possible that GrumpyDave isn't actually Dave though," she admitted a moment later.

I shrugged, "It doesn't really matter either way, since he asked us not to look into it anyways."

A moment later I added, "So what's next on our schedule for this afternoon? More filming, or do we want to call it a day?"

"I think we've done enough for today," Callie responded. "It's Friday and we've all been working pretty hard this week."

Bailey agreed, "We've earned a break."

I couldn't argue with that, so the three of us started shutting down the studio equipment for the day. Then as we headed for the stairs I commented, "It's been over a month now since we last heard from Kid Chaos. I guess that means she's not interested in doing the prophet thing with us after all."

"Or have you heard from her, Callie?" I added. "Have you tried messaging or texting her lately?"

She shook her head, "I've thought about it a lot over the past month, but I haven't actually messaged her. Not since you two suggested I should try praying instead. So I've been doing that every day."

"I haven't heard anything back yet though," she added as her shoulders slumped and her ears drooped.

"It's frustrating because I really want to get started with that new channel idea," she continued as the three of us moved through the kitchen on our way to the living-room. "But I'm hoping to hear back from her first, to find out if she's ok with it? We don't want to put in all the time and effort to get Praise The Chaos up and running if it's not actually going to help her. Or worse, if she thinks it's a bad idea and tells us to stop it."

Bailey agreed, "We're already working pretty hard as it is. We really don't want to make things even harder on ourselves unless we know the effort's going to be appreciated."

"Right," Callie nodded. "I'd be even better if she'd give it her official support, maybe even do another interview with us to kick things off? That'd be a great opener for PTC. But until we hear back from her there's not much more we can do, other than keep praying."

Then her tail twitched as she asked, "Speaking of prayers, have either of you two tried praying to her?"

My ears and tail all stood up tall as I smiled and admitted, "Yeah. Pretty much daily, same as you. I send her a little prayer of thanks every time I use my plushie, and every time I feel another hit of euphoria about my body. Either body actually, catgirl or cat."

"What about you Bailey?" I added as my girlfriends and I all got comfy then started cuddling on the sofa.

She nodded, "Probably not as much as you two, but yeah I've been praying to her as well."

"Maybe she's just really busy?" Callie suggested. "We know she's got big plans, and we know there's someone powerful out there trying to stop her. We just have to be patient, keep doing our thing, and keep supporting her. I'm sure we'll hear from her soon enough."

"So what you're saying is we shouldn't lose faith in Cassandra?" I teased.

The little calico rolled her eyes, "Yes Serenity, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"So what do you two feel like for dinner tonight?" Bailey asked.

"I'm not picky," I shrugged. "I don't feel like going out though. And considering our financial situation hasn't changed much since last week, we probably shouldn't be thinking about eating out or getting delivery anyways? So my vote is we just cook something ourselves when we're ready."

Callie frowned, "It's too early to think about dinner. And anyways I'm feeling way too lazy to do any cooking. Or washing dishes. So I say we splurge and get something delivered, when we're ready to eat."

I looked back at our foxgirl girlfriend, "That's one vote for home cooking, and one for delivery. What do you feel like Bailey? Will you be the tiebreaker?"

"Sure throw the decision back on me again why don't you," she grimaced.

She looked thoughtful for a moment as she adjusted her glasses, then finally flicked her ears and decided. "I'm siding with Callie this time. I'm actually feeling up for some Portillo's, if that works with the two of you?"

"Yeah actually," I nodded. "That sounds perfect."

Our calico girlfriend agreed, "Works for me. It's still way too early though, isn't it? You're not hungry already, are you Bails?"

The foxgirl shook her head, "Not yet. I was thinking about for later though, like around six or seven maybe?"

With all three of us in agreement the conversation tapered off, as we just quietly enjoyed the cuddle time together. Unfortunately the silence only lasted so long before the little calico spoke up again.

"So we've got another two or three hours before dinner time," she commented. "What do y'all feel like doing until then?"

I replied, "Isn't this enough? I'm enjoying the downtime and the cuddles."

"Same," Bailey responded. Then in a teasing tone she asked, "Are you getting bored cutie? Do you want to turn on the TV or something?"

Callie shook her head, "Not bored. And yeah this is nice right now. I was just curious if this is all we're doing with the rest of our day."

I shrugged, "If you've got something else in mind then I'm open to suggestions."

"Actually I do have something in mind," she replied with a little grin. "I know an even better way for the three of us to relax and unwind after the busy week we've had."

Then she nodded towards the tall pink kitty tower standing in the corner by the window and asked, "Who's up for some fuzzy nap-time before dinner?"

My ears flicked as I smiled, "Yeah ok, I'm up for some kitty time. Good idea Callie."

Bailey agreed, and all three of us got up off the sofa then headed upstairs to get our plushies. As we made our way into the master bedroom I smirked, "By the way, I call dibs on the penthouse bed!"

"No way!" our calico girlfriend protested. "It's my tower, I bought it, I built it! I get the penthouse bed!"

Bailey rolled her eyes and flicked her tail at the two of us, "You cats are lucky I'm not as obsessed with climbing as you. And that the hammock bed is so comfy. Otherwise the penthouse bed would be mine!"

Callie continued protesting as all three of us got our plushies out of the drawer in the bed-side table, and a second or two later our clothes were in three piles on the floor. Then the little calico and I took off in a mad dash as we both tried to beat the other to the top of the kitty tower.

Bailey was right behind us, and our race turned into a game of chase as the red fox started nipping at our tails. After that it all fun and games and zoomies for the next ten or fifteen minutes. We took turns chasing each other around the house, from room to room over and under the furniture, back upstairs through the bedrooms and down to our basement studio.

Eventually all three of us ran out of zoom and ended up back at our original objective. And as it turned out, neither Callie or I claimed the penthouse after all. Instead we both crowded into the soft pink hammock with Bailey, where the three of us formed a happy comfy little cuddle puddle.

The moment I was curled up with my girlfriends I felt a catnap coming on, but before I drifted off to sleep my thoughts turned to Cassandra, the Goddess of Chaos, and I sent her a little silent prayer.

"Thank you Kid Chaos for sending me a plushie and allowing me to have both this wonderful body and my perfect catgirl form," I voiced in my mind. "And thank you for sending Callie a plushie too, so she can be both a cat and a catgirl. Thanks also for giving Bailey her fox plushie. I'm grateful for everything you've done for us, and others like us."