Really Strange Stuff - Ch.34 - Introductions (Pt.1) (Patreon)

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

"Well this is exciting," Cassandra smiled as she looked around the table at everyone. "Thank you all for coming, it's wonderful to see you all here today."

A moment later she suggested, "We should probably do a round of introductions, since most of you won't have met each other. I'll kick it off, even though hopefully you all know me."

"My name is Cassandra Underwood," the young goddess continued. "Also known as Kid Chaos, also known as the Goddess of Chaos. There's another side to me that a few of you won't know. Her name is Cass, and she is a demon. The cuddly friendly kind, not the scary kind. Cass and I just graduated from college earlier this year, and we're now working full time to promote chaos, destroy the status quo, and restore magic to the world."

My girlfriends and I shared a slightly confused glance, but it seemed like neither of them knew what to make of that 'cuddly demon Cass' stuff any more than I did.

I vaguely remembered Cassandra saying something about being part demon back when she and Kaylee did that first interview on our RSS channel, but the comment was quickly overshadowed by her divine reveal. And looking around the table, I got the feeling only Kaylee and a few of the others sitting closest to the Goddess really knew what she was talking about.

It was about noon on Sunday, and we'd more or less taken over part of our hotel's dining room. They served a complimentary breakfast for guests most mornings, but it turned out they did a big brunch buffet on Sundays that was open to the public. Somehow Cassandra figured that out and made reservations for almost twenty people last night, before the halloween party ended.

Which unfortunately happened not long after the demonic crisis was averted. The festive mood was pretty much dead by that point, between the appearance of a big angry blue demon and an actual literal goddess showing up in a column of bright white light. Two or three of the normal human guests got completely freaked out, and the hosts ended up doing what they could to try and calm them down.

My girlfriends and I felt really bad about ruining the evening, since the demon wouldn't have revealed herself if we hadn't crashed the party. The blonde witch woman told us not to feel too guilty though, she promised none of the other demons would hold it against us. Eva even said they all knew Lily over-reacted. After all none of us had done anything threatening, so there was no reason for her wife to reveal her true form.

On the other hand between Mara and Callie making the suggestion and Cassandra making the arrangements with the restaurant, that big meeting came together almost immediately. Our goddess sorted out the details with Eva and Mara, then forwarded the information to everyone else on her team.

As for the halloween party, Mara and her girlfriends decided they'd have a do-over on the thirty-first. They might not get as many guests since that was a Thursday night and some folks had to work on Friday, or attend classes. But the re-do would be on halloween night and there'd be trick-or-treaters coming to the door, so the whole thing would balance out. At least that's how it worked according to Mara.

Now there was a big gang of us all here for the meeting. Sixteen in total, seated eight to a side around four tables that the hotel staff had pushed together. And needless to say, our group got a lot of attention from both the staff and the other diners. Including my girlfriends and I there were a half dozen of us with tails and fuzzy ears, or horns in one case. Although I was sure most of the gawkers chalked it up to halloween. This was the twenty-seventh of October after all, so it was easy to assume some of us were in costumes.

After we were seated we all got our drinks, and the majority seemed to prefer either juice or water. Some of us went for coffee though, my girlfriends and I included. I was ready to hit the buffet too, but it seemed like Cassandra wanted to break the ice first. So after her, the introductions continued clockwise down one side of the table then up the other.

"My name's Kaylee Holt," Cassandra's small floofy girlfriend announced with a grin, while her tails swished around behind her. "I'm a five-tailed demonic foxgirl. Also the friendly cuddly kind, at least most of the time. I'm girlfriends with both Cass and Cassandra, attending my third year of university, and working part time to destroy the patriarchy, crush the status quo, and all that other fun stuff. Oh and I'm Cassandra's first Disciple of Chaos."

To Kaylee's left sat a tall attractive redhead in her mid-twenties. She glanced around the table, then sort of looked at the rest of the busy dining room. Between hotel guests and members of the public the place was kind of crowded, and even though we had one corner of the restaurant to ourselves it definitely wasn't a quiet or private venue.

"I guess we're just doing this in public then?" the redhead asked, although it was clearly a rhetorical question. She shrugged and continued, "My name is Theresa Cleary, but friends call me Tess. I'm Amethyst's High Priestess, which means I help her with her goals, and those goals include working with Cassandra. I'm also a therapist, I work with queer kids, especially trans youths."

Then she looked across the table and addressed the demonic twins, "By the way it's nice to finally meet you two in person. I work with your mom Emma, so I've heard a lot about you."

Mara cringed while Mira just smiled, and I couldn't help wonder about the enigmatic Emma. We first heard the name last night when Cassandra mentioned her, and I noticed Mara cringed both times her mom's name was mentioned. Considering the woman apparently met with goddesses and worked with priestesses I knew she had to be some sort of very powerful entity.

With Theresa finished my eyes moved to the silver-haired girl sitting next to her, but it turned out she wasn't the next one to speak up. A small voice came from Tess's lap, where an adorable little tortoiseshell cat was sitting.

The cat stretched up and put its front paws on the table so everyone could see it as it spoke, "My name is Siggy, and I'm non-binary so I use they-them pronouns. I used to be a Norse Warrior Goddess but I retired from that. Now I'm Goddess to Neurodivergent people. And I'm also working with Cassandra to help bring down the status-quo."

It was hard to say what was the bigger shock. Having a cat turn up in the restaurant, hearing them speak, or having them announce that they're a goddess. And not just any goddess, but a former viking who'd become a neurodivergent feline. Needless to say, I wasn't the only one with a surprised look on her face.

"My name is Amethyst, but friends call me Amy," the silver-haired girl finally spoke. Apart from the hair another interesting feature was her purple eyes, which certainly fit with her name. In terms of age she looked like a college senior, just a bit older than Kaylee.

Then she shocked most of us when she mentioned, "For about three thousand years I was a local agrarian goddess in Ireland. Now I'm goddess to trans, queer, and demi-human people. I've known Cassandra for a couple years, and I'm on board with the idea of ending the status-quo and restoring magic and equality to the world."

I barely had time to process how old the silver-haired coed was when the goth-looking young woman sitting between Amethyst and Serenity took over. She was almost blunt as she stated, "My name is Ravenna, but I also answer to Raven. I am Her angel, Her goals are my goals."

Raven looked to Amethyst for that last part, so it was obvious which goddess she was referring to. Which was kind of an amazing thought, to realize we'd only heard from six people and three of them were goddesses. Meanwhile our ravenette catgirl was next up on this side of the table.

"I'm Serenity Varela," my tall sexy girlfriend greeted the others. "Disciple of Chaos, and full-time paranormal investigator, researcher, and reporter. Co-host of Really Strange Stuff and Praise The Chaos. And my pronouns are she-her."

Our little calico went next, "Howdy y'all. The name's Callie Wilson, and if we're doing pronouns mine are also she and her. Along with my girlfriends I'm a Disciple of Chaos, co-host of RSS and PTC and all that other stuff Sere already mentioned."

Then it was my turn. I fidgeted with my glasses as I greeted the others, "I'm Bailey Hoffman, pronouns are she and her. Another Disciple of Chaos, and I'm with Callie and Serenity. I'm the camera girl and do most of the technical work for RSS and PTC."

"The three of us are based in Chicago by the way," I added.

I was the last one on our side of the table, so after me all eyes shifted to the thirty-something year old dusky ravenette woman sitting across from me. My girlfriends and I already knew her from last night, but she'd got rid of her vampire costume. Now she was dressed in black slacks and a nice burgundy blouse, and her long black hair was neatly styled.

She still seemed wary as she looked around the table at all the new faces, and she didn't actually start talking until the blonde next to her gave her a little nudge.

"Fine," the woman sighed. "I used to be known as Lilith, but I go by Lily nowadays. And yes, I am a demon. Whether I'm the 'cuddly kind' or the 'dangerous kind' depends on the situation."

She added, "At nearly eight thousand years old I suspect I'm the most experienced one here this morning. I spent most of my time living in the Mediterranean, around what the mortals call Naples these days."

My eyebrows shot up as that number hit me. Eight thousand years old meant she'd been alive since the stone age. I could barely even comprehend how much she'd have seen and experienced. Meanwhile her wife was already talking so I quickly focused on her.

"I'm known as Eva," the attractive twenty-something blonde sitting across from Callie announced. Instead of the witch costume she wore last night she was dressed very casual today, in light blue leggings and a large colourful long-sleeve top.

"I'm another demon," Eva continued. Then she smiled, "I'm not quite as old as my wife though, at a mere six thousand years."

Then she looked over at the cat in Theresa's lap and added, "If circumstances had been different we might actually have been neighbours, Siggy. My territory was originally in Scandinavia, but some unfortunate events took me from my homeland a few thousand years ago."

To Eva's right and across from Serenity sat one of of the demonic twin girls, specifically the one who didn't have horns and a tail. The two demonic coeds were dressed identically, in black leggings and loose black tunic tops.

"Hello everyone," she smiled. "I'm Mira, and I'm also a demon. Beyond that things get complicated very quickly."

The twin with the horns was grinning and her tail swished back and forth behind her as she chimed in, "Probably easier if we go together? I'm Mara by the way, we're Mara and Mira. Both demons, and in a way we're kind of the same demon?"

"We were Lily's and Eva's daughter," she continued. "We've also got human moms too, who aren't here today -"

Mira grimaced, "Which is good. I think mom would flip if she knew about this. Mum probably would too."

"So we won't tell them," Mara said as she rolled her eyes. Then she addressed the rest of us again, "Anyways most people assume me and Mira are twins, but we're not. We're kind of the same person, but there's two of us instead of just one?"

"Except thanks to our mater's magic we both got our own separate bodies," Mira took over again. "So we don't have to share."

Mara grinned, "Although we can still share when we want to. We can even swap if we want. Or if we forget which was which while we're in headspace. Which can get awkward, since she volunteers at a hospital while I'm a full-time college student."

I was almost completely lost by that point, and it looked like my girlfriends were just as confused. Some of the folks at the other end of the table appeared to know what the twins were talking about though. And Theresa looked especially interested.

Then Cassandra gave them a knowing smile as she said, "It sounds like your situation is very similar to mine and Cass's. Having your own separate bodies is rather an interesting approach though. But you still have shared headspace?"

"Yeah!" Mara nodded enthusiastically. "Me and Mira and Lily are all still connected in there."

Mira added, "It's nice. And that's really interesting about you and Cass. Maybe we can talk more about that some time? Maybe even compare notes?"

"That's an excellent idea," our goddess agreed. "Later though, we still have a few more introductions to get through. And I'm sure some of you are eager to visit the buffet."

** note: with so many people involved this chapter seemed to just go on forever. in fact it was long enough we had to split it in half, so the rest of the introductions (and the food) will have to wait until next time~ **