20:31 <Crion> Streamer life's hard, ain't it? 20:32 <banana> From what Melanie can tell, it is both hard and not hard. 20:33 <Crion> Stewart's fresh off the Tony movie hour in the new "studio" belowdecks in the Wild Goose, and so far most everything works, but while the regulars and the normies both are generally fine with the usual Path of Exile fare...there is a desire for more of the CriticalMass and Friends stuff. And it's pretty clear. "lmao these fuckin nerds," Dot_carat says in the mod channel of the Discord. 20:33 <banana> (This dichotomy gives rise to a peculiarly Hegelian synthsesis, the 'socially awkward/awesome penguin' meme,) 20:36 <VoxPVoxD> It depends how you reckon hard — a lot of video games themselves. Is it about raw physical execution, is it about developing a base of knowledge, is it about endurance in the face of consistently low odds of success? Low floors or high ceilings? <they're right and they should say it> Stewart replies. <I'll tweet about it> And so he does. 20:37 <VoxPVoxD> Probably best practice to secure a guest before you announce a timeslot, but Maggie largely inspired this idea and you can always count on her. "You wanna come on the stream tonight?" he asks her the next time he sees her. 20:37 <dammitwho> There was a brief emergency on the Wild Goose, as Steve (the Justified fan) expressed the desire for a gun. Maggie was able to placate him with a toy gun, since Steve is a lover and a businessgoose, not a fighter - Watermelon Boys aside. 20:38 <Crion> Obviously he had to have the hat to go along with it. 20:39 <trenchfoot> He looks adorable, frankly. 20:39 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh goodness, yes! ...I heard from Tony that he talked about how the Hedge messes up TV and movies and whatnot? Do you want me to do that?" 20:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not if you don't want to. I wanna let some weirdness into all the streams but there's a lot of different ways to do that. What'd be best is whatever sounds most compelling to you! With Tony that was movies, with you it could be crafts or stories or whatever." 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> "Streaming is kind of like busking. You're playing for everyone so a tiny number of people will chip in a little bit of money and you hope it adds up. Fishing for procs." 20:45 <Crion> Steve is still kind of spooked by the streaming studio. Maybe it's the studio part, not the streaming? He's never had an issue with screens before. 20:45 <dammitwho> Maggie sighing with relief always sounds weird - like steam escaping from a valve. Psssssh. "That sounds just fine. It'll be neat to meet all the fellas who watch you every day... now just what exactly is a 'proc'?" 20:46 <VoxPVoxD> Cameras are like keepers. No matter what they get out of you they'll never love you back. "It's a cherry on a slot machine." 20:47 <VoxPVoxD> What kind of accent does Maggie have? 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> While fiddling with the lights — he feels less compelled to hide this effort from Maggie than from Tony — he goes on: "There's sort of two halves to social interaction, right. They're like playing poker and playing slots. Layering dozens of tiny decisions on top of each other to give yourself the best possible odds on the best possible outcomes, or rolling the dice as many times as 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> possible and seeing how lucky you get." 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> "When you're dealing with unfamiliar content, you're always playing slots." 20:53 <VoxPVoxD> That was more coherent in Stewart's head, but he's elbow-deep in the tightly bound and labeled forest of wires at the rear of the room. 20:58 <dammitwho> Maggie sadly doesn't talk with a Fargo accent, nobody does in real life. She sounds like someone started with their brush dead center in Nowheresville, Midwest USA, and determinedly smeared paint everywhere. Words and short phrases could pop up with odd twangs from just about anywhere, moreso when she's drunk or stressed. 21:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart comes out from behind the rig. "Alright. You sound good, you look good. I'm gonna change my shirt so I don't look quite so washed out sitting next to you. Oh, though— any thoughts on anonymity? I have a setup so I can replace you with a cartoon character if you don't want a bunch of internet strangers to see your Mask." 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Can also call you by a different name if you want." 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Tony was fine as-is but I'm prepared for anyone who isn't." 21:04 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Now hang on. What do you mean, replace me with a cartoon character?" 21:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's a Japanese tech. Custom-designed animated avatars that you can sync to your movements. Lets people stream without needing to make themselves presentable or attractive or knowable to thousands of anonymous strangers." 21:12 <dammitwho> Maggie whistles, impressed. "Leave it to the Japanese... I'll tell you what. Let's not do that, but get it ready anyway so you can show me how it works on the stream, yeah?" 21:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Sure! Chat'll be up on this screen here, and the screen on the wall back here is exactly what the audience is seeing. Camera is here but it looks weird to make eye contact with it. Stewart brings the channel online and lets the chat fill in while he runs off to go change. 21:15 <dammitwho> Maggie will fetch Topper, then, and leave him sitting against the wall out of view of the camera. It's a surprise tool that will help us later. 21:16 <Crion> Fella has the night off; tonight's mods are Dot_carat and Hundredpercentbears, though Hundred is usually distracted. 21:20 <banana> kantlogoff posts an inexplicable but harmless series of emotes followed by "STGA". 21:21 <dammitwho> Glad to see the Scottish Tour Guides Association checking in. 21:21 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990 appears to be posting the text for emotes without the appropriate syntax to make them show up. 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> Dot is a damn champ. When Stewart's finances are settled post-boat he's gonna get all the mods nice gifts but he might just pay Dot to mod, straight up. "You ready?" he asks Maggie. 21:23 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yup!" 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Alright." Stewart hits a key and a countdown animation plays them in to the B overlay, with no screenshare, just chat and camera. "Hey guys! Everyone say hi to Maggie." 21:29 <Crion> Dot is indeed already shooting the shit with the regulars. Looks like LeBrimley and TeriyakiArmalite are already here. emperorSbarro has resubbed for 7 months; he's a grump but he's been here since the start. 21:32 <Crion> LeBrimley: "Has CriticalMass said what we're doing tonight?" Dot: "its a surprise leb" LeBrimley: "I'm not unamenable to surprises. But is it more Tony?" Dot: "i can confirm for you it is not more tony> 21:32 <dammitwho> Maggie waves cheerfully at the screen. 21:32 <Crion> *" 21:33 <Crion> Dot: "as we are now live" 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> "emperorSbarro! Founding member of the Reactor, renewing for a leaderboard-topping seventh straight month. Thank you so much for the support. Enjoy those emotes." 21:33 <Crion> emperorSbarro: "lol hello crit hello chat. this doesn't look like poe" 21:34 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "damn cant get nothing past the pizza lord" 21:35 <Crion> emperorSbarro: "hello teri" 21:35 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "hey hey" 21:36 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "hi to maggie" 21:36 <Crion> emperorSbarro: "hi maggie" 21:36 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "hello maggie" 21:37 <Crion> LeBrimley: "Greetings, Maggie." 21:37 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "hello maggie!" 21:37 <Crion> ptoolmey: "wtf. hi maggie??" 21:38 <Crion> Dot: "yo" 21:38 <Crion> *Dot_carat: "yo" 21:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "'this doesn't look like poe'. That's right. My friend Maggie's come on to hang out with us for a while. Oh, I see the tag is— let me get that." 'Path of Exile' in the Now Playing becomes Just Chatting. Stewart has the self-control not to frown at his mistake. This is not a negative-emotion-appropriate situation. "Why don't you introduce yourself to the chat?" 21:38 <Crion> Various other greetings roll in. 21:39 <banana> kantlogoff: "Is it Maggie or Maggey? Like in the lost turnabout lol" 21:40 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "she fine" 21:41 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "its a thirst trap stream now...... j/k" 21:41 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "no ban pls" 21:41 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Goodness, those go pretty fast. It's a wonder you can keep up! Well, hello there internet people! My name's Maggie Bakehead, and like Tony and Melanie and Nels I'm friends with Stewart! We met... gosh, more'n a year ago?" 21:41 <Crion> Dot_carat: "right. mod reminder to keep it civil, clean breaks, don't be weird, i'll time you out" 21:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "By 2020 time, a year ago was last Wednesday. Comparatively we've known each other forever." 21:42 <dammitwho> "That's with an -ie there, kant log off." Maggie may not know much about video game streaming, but she knows how to perform, and the audience loves it when you single one of them out. 21:44 <banana> kantlogoff: "Just what the murderer would say, haha" 21:45 <Crion> How do Stewart and Maggie react to kantlogoff? Dot's ready to time them out. 21:48 <dammitwho> Maggie has no idea what the Sam Hell they're talking about, but she figures she's in for a lot of that this stream so she's not really put out by it. 21:48 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "wtf" 21:48 <Crion> Dot_carat times the guy out just to set the tone. 21:48 <Crion> Probably a guy. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's completely no-selling it. Dot can do as Dot pleases. "I remember the first time I met Maggie she took me aside and asked me for video game recommendations." 21:49 <Crion> Dot_carat: "new chat rule don't jokingly imply the guest is a murderer in the first three minutes of the stream" 21:51 <Crion> Bennay1997: "yooooooh hey" 21:52 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "what'd you rec" 21:54 <Crion> ptoolomy: "a song of ice and fire, ofc" 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Puzzle games. Myst, Portal, The Witness. Not easy, but, you know. Chill." 21:55 <Crion> LeBrimley: "You know, it's a bit messed up how much better 'A Song of Ice and Fire' fits Final Fantasy as a series, and 'Final Fantasy' fits ASOIAF/GOT." 21:56 <Crion> emperorSbarro: "holy shit" 21:56 <Crion> ptoolomy: "i knew we kept you around for a reason Brimley" 21:56 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "chillin...very cool" 21:57 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh goodness, that's right! You must've been just starting out. Yep, it was all those Mysts and whatnot, and the Super Marios..." She hasn't budged from pronouncing it Mare-io. 21:57 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "oh man she says it like DVS" 21:58 <Crion> Bennay1997: "what" 21:58 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "dot can i link a tweet" 21:58 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "mayrio" 21:58 <Crion> Dot_carat: "yes since i know what it is" 21:58 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: https://twitter.com/dvsblast/status/660298783473983488 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart'll play that for Maggie. 22:00 <Crion> SmallpoxJordan: "lmaoooo" 22:01 <dammitwho> Maggie turns to Stewart. "Do we know that guy? I feel like that's one of Street's guys." 22:03 <Crion> kantlogoff's timeout has expired and they're free to be a weirdo again. 22:04 <banana> absolute_position: "Who is street?" 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "He's from New York, I think? I dunno exactly. See, guys, this is my life. Either I'm going about my day, explaining online to all my friends who never go online, or I'm online, passing on their wisdom and knowledge to you. Like Blade for boomers." 22:05 <Crion> ptoolomy: "i guess 'iceskating uphill' does describe some poe builds" 22:05 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "hey your friends do not look like boomers, don't sell yourself or them short" 22:05 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "that's rough buddy" 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> "And now I'm cutting out the middleman. I remember, was it Brimley? Who got everyone roasting me for explaining the difference between a pot still and a column still? I only know what that is because of Maggie." 22:06 <Crion> LeBrimley: "I think ptoolomy helped." 22:06 <Crion> ptoolomy: "because i cause problems on purpose" 22:07 <banana> PrimordialPasta: "poglems" 22:07 <dammitwho> Maggie chuckles. "Now I must stress for those of you on the internet there that it is fully illegal to have either a pot still or a column still in the state of Maryland, so this is all, whatchacallit, hypothetical." 22:07 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "wait she moonshinin ?" 22:08 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "damn!" 22:08 <banana> absolute_position: "Hell it's illegal just to go outside. We are subject to a lot of nonsense." 22:08 <dammitwho> "Well, uh, 'Dank Crusader', I'm no saint, no sir. I didn't even make it second assistant choir girl." 22:08 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "haha thats aight" 22:09 <Crion> LeBrimley: "I suppose that's worth asking, actually -- are you, Maggie, and Tony all in the same quarantine bubble?" 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yep! Us, Lauren, two other friends. We do our grocery shopping jointly and everything." 22:10 <dammitwho> Maggie perks up. "Ooh! That reminds me, I wanted to show you all this thing Stewart got for me-" She takes out her vape rig. "Now when we kinda met there I was sticking with my cigs, you understand. And young Stewart was concerned about my ol' lungs--" She thumps her chest for emphasis. "So he got me one of these. Isn't it something? The idea is it's all oil and water, and there's 22:10 <dammitwho> a little electronic thing that evaporates the water and carries the nicotine or what have you. Very futuristic." 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> Is Lauren what chat knows Lauren as? If not it's whatever they know her as. 22:12 <Crion> Probably, though rightly speaking, that's up to Stewart. Lauren doesn't say much of anything when she pops in, let alone her name. 22:12 <Crion> She's fine with 'Lauren' as long as it's just that. 22:13 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "NOW WE REAL DANK" 22:13 <Crion> ptoolomy: "oh my god" 22:13 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "vape stream activated" 22:14 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "vaper's rights" 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> Ironically, her full name would almost certainly sound like a screen name. "Hashtag Vape Nation. Anyway, like I said, Maggie's always working on something handy or crafty or... handicraft-y. What kind of projects do you have right now?" 22:16 <Crion> DankCrusader_09 has donated 420 bits. 22:17 <banana> kantlogoff: "Hey dot it was just a vidcon reference, I know you didn't mean anything bad by it, neither did I though" 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> That triggers a specific sound sequence and screen popup, specifically the first bit of this unrelated video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuaNhduDAaw 22:18 <dammitwho> Maggie waggles her eyebrows. "And of course they can put just about any old thing in there. It can be a bit of the salt and pepper, a Mezzrow's mezzrole, an electronic goofbutt... if you follow." 22:18 <dammitwho> "Oh! Well, you remember that picture you showed me of the chair that looks like a scorpion, kinda?" Probably a gamer chair. 22:18 <Crion> Bennay1997: "this mfer goofbuttin" 22:21 <Crion> RabbitFoodVLE has subscribed; they're a new subscriber. "hey Crit VOD watcher here love the content" 22:21 <VoxPVoxD> "Dank Underscore Crusader Four Twenty burning down the full four twenty bits. Thank you so much, I appreciate you." There's a fraction of a second hitch before his attention switches back to Maggie. "Oh yeah, the Imperator Works. Looks like you could ride it to fight the Terminator." 22:21 <VoxPVoxD> "RabbitFoodVLE! First time subscriber, glad you've been enjoying the videos. Welcome to the Reactor; enjoy the emotes." 22:23 <dammitwho> Maggie: "We-he-hell, I can't really bang something out of space-age plastic and steel or whatever the hell that thing's made of," She can, but it would be imprudent to say so online. "But a bit of wood and metal and cushioning's no problem. I think I've got a picture of it, actually." She fishes around in her pockets for her phone. "Is there a way to get it up on the big screen, 22:23 <dammitwho> there?" 22:24 <dammitwho> The picture she shows Stewart looks like this, only half-done. https://i.imgur.com/3bKvJZ3.jpg 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, lay it on the table here. I'll switch to D..." That gets an overhead view of Stewart's remorselessly neat desk, with prominently sponsor-logoed mousepad, and a clear shot of the sketch. 22:27 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "what is this thing" 22:28 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "is that a radscorpion? working as a massager?" 22:28 <Crion> Bennay1997: "Get Over Chair" 22:28 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I don't think it would really work as a video gamer chair, but it would be fun out in the living area, don't you think?" 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> A rarely used setup. So rarely used, in fact, that he hasn't been able to justify the cost of the tablet he could use to take notes and show off notes instead. "Absolutely. A real test of mettle at any social occasion. Who's brave enough to sit in the Danger Chair?" 22:30 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "me but only if the stinger functions" 22:31 <Crion> ptoolomy: "no judgment if y'all are in a polycule that's all cool. but this is some polycule shit" 22:32 <banana> PrimordialPasta: "take it you've never had friends" 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart makes a sucked-on-a-lemon face. 22:32 <Crion> LeBrimley: "I don't think that's fair. You've seen the chairs they have on the internet." 22:35 <Crion> Is Maggie wearing any of her union stuff? 22:39 <dammitwho> Yeah, she's got some old Wobbly stuff on her vest (Maggie is always either spiritually or literally wearing a vest), and a vintage pin that just says HONOR LABOR - BUY UNION MADE. 22:40 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Stewart, what is a 'polycule'?" 22:40 <Crion> ptoolomy: "oh god im so sorry" 22:41 <Crion> PharmaShwarma: "maggie you're union?" 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart milks that moment of initial stunned embarrassment as he figures out how to play this. Eventually he takes an index card from the stack beneath monitor 2 and writes polycule (n.): a group of people in a network of interlinked, non-monogamous <moment of hesitation here> romantic relationships. 22:44 <VoxPVoxD> Then he passes it to Maggie, stonefaced. 22:44 <banana> absolute_position: "The dictionary does its work once again." 22:45 <Crion> Dot_carat: "ptoolomy once again you have caused problems on purpose" 22:45 <Crion> ptoolomy: "i accept my timeout with dignity" 22:46 <Crion> Dot_carat: "f" 22:46 <banana> kantlogoff: "It's not so bad once you get used to the silence" 22:46 <Crion> There are Fs in chat. 22:48 <dammitwho> Maggie completely loses it. The kind of laughter that turns into coughing. "Oh my goodness. Aaaaahhh. PharmaShwarma -" She kind of mangles the pronounciation here. "Yeah, used to be. Kind of semi-retired now, and being union doesn't really mean what it used to, these days." 22:48 <Crion> PharmaShwarma: "hell yeah. solidarity tho" 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What kind of work did you do?" 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> God that was the most embarrassed Stewart has ever felt. There's real viral potential in that. Hopefully freezing up plays better than melting down or busting out laughing would. 22:53 <dammitwho> Now this is a toughie, because 'riveting World War 2 bombers' is unlikely to be believed. 22:56 <dammitwho> "Welding! I was with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, but my whole family was union. Teamsters, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers..." 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "They wanted her to pose for the Rosie the Riveter poster, but she was too busy riverting." 22:57 <Crion> PharmaShwarma: "damn salute to a real one. moms an airline stewardess and dad was union telecom. fuck comcast fuck verizon" 22:58 <trenchfoot> sanzenith1990: "badass" 22:59 <Crion> LeBrimley: "Huh. Old-school." 23:00 <dammitwho> Maggie picks up an unlabeled bottle of her homebrew from below the camera's view and takes a swig. "I hear you, Pharma. It's all just goddamn Ma Bell." 23:01 <banana> armenians_lie joined the chat just long-enough ago that the stream delay's passed. now it's their time to shine: "🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🤚" 23:01 <Crion> Dot_carat: "i think the fuck not" 23:01 <Crion> That line is deleted and the Chat Turk is banned. 23:04 <dammitwho> "Aaaaaaaah, it makes me sad, though. Less'n one in ten Americans is a union man now, used to be it was one in three." 23:04 <Crion> LeBrimley: "So Maggie, if you were to be brewing in accordance with state and local law -- we'll take compliance as read, hypothetically -- what's your specialty? I'm something of an amateur afficionado myself." 23:05 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "hey aint no problem just elect joe fuckin biden lmao" 23:05 <Crion> Dot_carat: "we're not doing primary chat again" 23:05 <Crion> "i WILL give you the rest of the night off" 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If it gets too poliitcal we can just let the Turks back in." 23:05 <Crion> He proceeds to do so with a couple users who don't listen, including Bennay1997. 23:06 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "kk" 23:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart 23:07 <Crion> Bennay1997 has donated $27. "lmao can't censor me here dot_fascist. go sanders fuck warren" 23:08 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "they seem fun" 23:10 <Crion> Chat's rowdy for a few minutes but calms down soon. 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's very cagey about his own politics, because getting political if you don't know anything either kills your stream or locks you in a pen with a bunch of racist knockoff LeBrimleys. "Thanks for the donation, Ben. I'm gonna match that with a donation of supplies to Johns Hopkins—" The little popup and donate link under the stream window have been getting fewer shoutouts than 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> they were a couple weeks ago when everything shut down but Stewart likes having it on hand to defuse. 23:21 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well now, Mister Brimley, what I've got goin' on is I guess what you'd call a 'brewstillery'. Now, uh, for those of you who don't know, the basic idea for making whiskeys is you start with a raw grain that you let germinate for a bit, which turns all the starch inside the grain into sugar. That's called 'malting'. Then you grind it up, put it in a big tub of hot water and shake 23:21 <dammitwho> it about - sort of like putting your malt in a washing machine. Then, and this is what I'm getting to, the last stage before you start distilling it is you add some yeast and let it ferment." 23:22 <Crion> LeBrimley: "!" 23:22 <dammitwho> "The bright sparks in Stewart's internet... viewers? might be saying right about now, 'Hey! That sounds like what you do to make beer!' and they're absolutely right. In fact, what's left over is called 'distiller's beer'." 23:23 <dammitwho> "You don't usually drink it, of course, because it's thin and doesn't taste very good at all. But what it means is, instead of going for whiskey directly you can make an ordinary beer and divert part of the finished batch to the still to make whiskey out of it." 23:23 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "im in love yall" 23:23 <banana> PrimordialPasta: "thats too bright a spark" 23:24 <Crion> LeBrimley: "A professional..." 23:24 <dammitwho> Maggie takes another swig, satisfied. "Waste not, want not, am I right?" 23:25 <Crion> That's when the bot jumps the built-in Twitch filters. 23:25 <Crion> LuckyWinnerComeHome: Come Play My Steward! The new number one hit mobile game where you play as an NPC in a great kingdom doing tasks, 23:25 <Crion> grinding tokens, and sublimating! All your attention and desire! Free to play, quit when the job is done! If you're seeing this ad, 23:25 <Crion> you've been chosen based on your profile, and we know who you are [link automatically censored] 23:26 <Crion> Dot_carat: "wtf. go away" 23:26 <Crion> The bot is swiftly banned. 23:26 <Crion> For thirty seconds. 23:26 <Crion> LuckyWinnerComeHome: Come Play My Stewart! The new number one hit mobile game where you play as an NPC in a great kingdom doing tasks, 23:26 <Crion> grinding tokens, and sublimating! All your attention and desire! Free to play, quit when the hero wins! If you're seeing this ad, 23:26 <Crion> you've been chosen based on your profile, and we know who you are https://comegatherround/wereslicinghim.open 23:27 <banana> absolute_position quits the chat. 23:27 <Crion> This time Dot_carat says nothing, though there's a flurry of activity in the backend. Eventually he gets it out of the chat by banning anything with a URL. 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart doesn't move a muscle. He doesn't breathe. He doesn't blink for so long his eyes burn. 23:28 <Crion> Dot_carat: "No more URLs tonight in chat" 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> It almost looks like a hitch in the stream, except Maggie is breathing and blinking and emoting normally. It lasts somewhere between 45 and 50 seconds. 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> Then Stewart just turns and speaks to Maggie like it never happened. "What kind of grain are you using?" 23:33 <Crion> There's some activity in the mod channel of the Discord; Dot has @ed Hundredpercentbears and, quite incensed, is going over what the fuck just happened. Hundred doesn't have an explanation, but does have some inoculation ideas. 23:36 <Crion> As for the chat, there are a couple lols but no one actually pays close attention to spam. 23:38 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, I'm not near so precious as all that stuff about beer and whiskey makes it sound. You can ferment anything with sugar in it, and you can distill anything you can ferment. I think the last run we did was making applejack from hard cider..." 23:39 <dammitwho> "Uh, I guess I should put on my professor's hat again. Applejack is called that because it was made in the olden days by jacking, where you put the cider in a big bucket out back during the winter, and every once in a while you'd go out and break off the bits that froze solid and throw 'em away. Alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water, see?" 23:40 <Crion> ptoolomy: "lol" 23:40 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "lol" 23:40 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "nice" 23:40 <Crion> LeBrimley: "That's the technical term." 23:40 <dammitwho> "I think the fancy name for applejack is calvados, although maybe that's made from a different sort of apples? Don't recall." 23:40 <Crion> emperorSbarro: "lol" 23:41 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "bapple jack" 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> Is he supposed to tell someone about this? "Note that jacking isn't in common use as a technique anymore, because it distills the methyl alcohols and the drinkable ones all the same. Stuff like that is the root of stories of moonshiners going blind." 23:41 <Crion> SmallpoxJordan: "lol" 23:43 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Yerrp. That's why they used to call your bathtub hooch 'whiskey popskull', on account of the wicked headaches you'd get the next day from all the impurities." 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> "Before Prohibition pretty much all of America's apple crop was fermented, I think. Either hard cider or applejack." Who does he tell? Lauren? Ravens? The motley? The Queen? 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> "But before Prohibition Americans drank like an oil drum of liquor every week, so." 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> No. Stewart's overreacting. If it happens again he'll say something. 23:45 <VoxPVoxD> Maybe. Depends on the situation. 23:46 <trenchfoot> sanzenithfan1990: "mood" 23:47 <Crion> LeBrimley: "It's more complicated than that...but not too much more complicated than that." 23:47 <Crion> LeBrimley donates 1000 bits. "What an excellent conversation!" 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Thank you for the bits, LeBrimley! Glad you're enjoying the stream. This is fun, I like having people on. Feels like—" He clears his throat. A little sweat glistens past the foundation. "Worlds colliding, you know? But in a good way." 23:51 <Crion> ptoolomy: "it's good imo" 23:51 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "same/agreed" 23:51 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "sagreed" 23:51 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "dope shit" 23:52 <Crion> 101stChairborne: "loggin in late. what'd i miss. hi crit's cool aunt" 23:52 <Crion> ptoolomy: "don't tell him plz" 23:52 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "check clips" 23:53 <Crion> ptoolomy: "no friends here, not even a marinated rifle" 23:54 <Crion> 101stChairborne: "lmao" 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh!! Speaking of worlds colliding, Maggie volunteered to help me test out some new tech for the stream." The mocap is pretty light, this isn't meant to be a full-range-of-motion type thing, but people who've tinkered around with this stuff will probably recognize the wristbands Maggie's putting on and will understand why after a couple of keypresses she's been replaced by a 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> nuclear power plant smokestack with 1930s cartoon rubber hose arms and those big Steamboat Willie eyes. 00:00 <Crion> TeriyakiArmalite: "ANIME" 00:00 <Crion> ptoolomy: "vtubed" 00:01 <Crion> LeBrimley: "Steamboatin'." 00:02 <Crion> DankCrusader_09: "trippin" 00:05 <dammitwho> Maggie: "So I just-- oop!" She startles, then starts laughing as the cheerful cooling tower reacts in time with her. 00:05 <VoxPVoxD> The face capture is pretty good, as Maggie gets more emotional fat little cumulus clouds of steam puff out of the stack. 00:06 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Now that is just the damnedest thing I ever saw. Is that how they make cartoons these days? Just set these up and let real actors go nuts?" 00:06 <banana> kamorrojoFX: "lol your going 2 meltdown" 00:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Those are still done by animators in sweatshops mostly. This is kind of a different thing." 00:08 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Let's see if I can get him to blow his stack! HrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!" 00:09 <Crion> LMAOs all around the chat. 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> Eyeing both the clock and the guitar, while Maggie's mugging in the vtube Stewart takes another notecard and writes some quick stage directions on it for Maggie. Ways to angle her body and head, how hard to project her voice to hit the mics right, etc, if she decides to play. 00:12 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Hm? Oh, are we gettin' close to the end, there?" 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> "I'd really hate for this show to end on the wrong note..." he mutters. Kills his own mic by reflex, without even realizing. "Set this stream up. Invite my friends. And then pull the plug? No. Nooo no no. Instead we will stick to the plan and make use of the tools we have. We gather, we play the show out, and we let the door hold the wind at bay." 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Looking up. "Whenever you're ready. This is about as long as Tony went." 00:14 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Oh, right. Well, can you make Shufflin' Joe Atom there get lost?" 00:15 <VoxPVoxD> He realizes the mic is dead and repeats himself. "Yeah sure I'll-- Yeah sure I'll just--" And then Maggie's back. "Stax is a friend of the show, and you can expect to see them more in the future." 00:19 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Alright, there was one last thing I wanted to show you all, here--" She picks up Topper from off screen. "This' Topper, named in honor of the great Willie Nelson. Willie's guitar is of course named Trigger, after Roy Rogers' horse, on the principle that a singer's guitar is like a cowboy's horse, so I named this'n Topper, after Hopalong Cassidy's horse." 00:20 <VoxPVoxD> The sound of a thousand Wikipedia tabs opening. 00:21 <dammitwho> "Now, you may have noticed the odd little dingus attached to the pick guard here. Lemme just--" Maggie is going to try and get Topper under the same desk camera that she had her phone under. 00:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart needs to move a light so it's not in the way, but otherwise no problem. 00:25 <dammitwho> The 'dingus' she's referring to is a sort of small frame adhered to the guitar just above the strings, that carries a series of pegs with soft padding on the end of each one, carefully screwed in place such that they can dampen the vibration of the strings when oriented properly. There's a little thumb switch at the back that looks to be able to lift up the pegs and swing them away from 00:25 <dammitwho> the strings, allowing the whole apparatus to be applied and removed in mid-song. 00:25 <dammitwho> It looks like this, though homemade and Topper is an acoustic. https://i.imgur.com/2XsnDa3.png 00:27 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Now, uh, when you've only got the one instrument, it gets a little difficult when the song you're playing calls for a bit of a different sound. So I put together this little number for when I need Topper to sound like a banjo..." 00:27 <Crion> ptoolomy: "damn" 00:28 <dammitwho> She demonstrates its motion, and plays a little bit in each position, and sure enough there's a definite banjo twang with the thing applied. "Dampens the strings way down, see." 00:32 <Crion> Chat is abuzz and excited, though many of them aren't particularly closely following all her moves. 00:35 <dammitwho> Maggie picks Topper up again. "Now, the other thing is when I want him to sound like a violin, and that was tough. They've had a thing called an 'e-bow' since the 70s that uses electromagnetic whatsits to vibrate the strings, but that sounds like an electric violin. Which I don't want. But I figured it out!" She holds up a Bic pen triumphantly. "Just an ordinary plastic pen, you put 00:35 <dammitwho> rosin on it like a violin bow, and you bow the strings perpendicular into the sound hole like this..." She demonstrates. It sounds more like a cello on the bass strings, but the effect is still pretty remarkable. 00:35 <dammitwho> Maggie picks Topper up again. "Now, the other thing is when I want him to sound like a violin, and that was tough. They've had a thing called an 'e-bow' since the 70s that uses electromagnetic whatsits to vibrate the strings, but that sounds like an electric violin. Which I don't want. But I figured it out!" She holds up a Bic pen triumphantly. "Just an ordinary plastic pen, you put 00:35 <dammitwho> rosin on it like a violin bow, and you bow the strings perpendicular into the sound hole like this..." She demonstrates. It sounds more like a cello on the bass strings, but the effect is still pretty remarkable. 00:37 <Crion> Chat's building... 00:37 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Neat, huh? Alright. This song is one I heard from a tv show that a friend of ours is pretty into. Now, it's not my favorite song. My favorite song would be something by Stan Rogers, but I'm not gonna play Stan this time so you all have a reason to want me to come back." She chuckles. "Alright. This is 'You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive', by somebody or other." 00:39 <dammitwho> "In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky..." She plays, and she sounds good. The Maggie that blew their socks off when she was played in to the Spring Court has still got it. On the bridge, she does sections as guitar, violin, or bandjo, smoothly switching between each to give the impression of a larger band. 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> Holy shit. 00:40 <Crion> Chat loses it! The FX show Justified doesn't even get mentioned for like, 90 seconds after she's done. When it is, her version is easily judged the better. 00:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart gives her a hug when she's done. 00:41 <Crion> No one even makes a polycule joke about it. 00:41 <VoxPVoxD> After shutting the stream down: "Whew! You did great." 00:44 <Crion> Only once the camera is safely off will Steve come poking around, lured by the sweet music. 00:46 <dammitwho> "Phew! I was a bit nervous, I don't mind telling you..." 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> "You totally killed." 00:50 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Hope so! Your... I dunno what you call 'em, chatters seemed very nice." 00:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "They're just the chat. I call mine 'the Reactor' cause that goes with the whole thing. And yeah they're great. Very fun and nice and well-behaved. Turkish invaders aside." 00:53 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Golly, if you have me back on again could we play some video games?" 00:54 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Absolutely. Any idea what kind?" 00:56 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I don't think I could manage those gun games... what about one of the newer Marios?" 00:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh! I could hook a Switch up easy. And then we'd have one around for people to play with."