21:12 <Crion> Spring continues to be sprung. What streams has Stewart been doing in between the meet-and-greets with the Wherehouse? 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> Delirium is still doing numbers — the ordinary league lifecycle tail-off in viewer is substantially muted for almost a month in. So he does some Path of Exile every day, usually in the morning and early afternoons. Evening streams, when his evenings are free, are more variety-oriented. Missing ten years of gaming has given him a Steam backlog that's... about as big as it would've been 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> anyway, probably. 21:17 <Crion> What's he been into recently? 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> He did Hollow Knight a while back, and he does group games with high-tier subs every other weekend (there's a rolling poll in the Discord). Last week he started Dark Souls! 21:20 <Crion> As ptoolomy would say, and does constantly in chat, "dork souls." 21:20 <VoxPVoxD> Hard to argue. 21:27 <banana> Melanie's slouching around anxiously in the main Wherehouse living space today. She sent off the first three chapters of her thesis, which are probably terrible, and now she has to gather the Glamour to resist whatever totally deserved criticism will come back by email, except it'll probably take her advisor a fucking week to even read it. So she doesn't feel like working. 21:28 <Crion> Summer court Freeholders are discovering a great way to harvest Glamour right now is walking around without a mask on. 21:29 <Crion> Not a Mask, mind. 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> A couple more months, Autumn will be able to get in on that too. 21:29 <Crion> They keep that one on. 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart comes in from the dock looking sleepy. "Oh hey, Melanie. How are you doing?" 21:32 <banana> She's pacing, slowly, between one set of ratty-but-clean sofas and the other comfy chair that only Steve uses because it went Wrong. "Eghhh. Errgh. ...egg." 21:32 <banana> "Maybe I ought to have rooted my argument in the analytic tradition.. individualism crap that then gets subverted by the individual's casting-out." 21:34 <banana> This is addressed to Stewart, though it doesn't exactly address what he asked. Or maybe it does. 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Who's your audience?" 21:36 <banana> Melanie: "Tenured faculty. Who are very intelligent, and some of them are quite friendly, but the consensus of the department is that Rawls of all people is the touchstone of social analysis." 21:37 <Crion> Steve has been puttering about with Tony all afternoon, but with him snoring on the couch in front of the Jimothy Saga of Seinfeld, the goose has decided to quietly join you. Well, not join you. He's aware of how Melanie feels about him, especially while she's in her thinking zone. So he's just sort of camped out in the kitchen, staring into the main room from an angle only Stewart can see. 21:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Well you know them better than I do, but it doesn't sound like they're super petty. I think as long as you're making an argument that stands on its own two legs and aren't taking specific digs at their pet ideas then that's the best you can do. Remember, they want you to produce a defended thesis. It reflects poorly on them if you don't." 21:39 <VoxPVoxD> "You don't have to give them a reason to accept you. You just have to avoid giving them a reason not to." 21:39 <banana> Melanie distrusts Steve only as part of a class, not as an individual monster. He may well be more benevolent than the average faerie creature which worms its way into your home in a cute(?) animal costume. 21:40 <banana> "Now that sounds like a social analysis. It's something you've practiced, right?" 21:40 <Crion> Steve is rather intelligent for a hob of his size, shape, and concept, but he still only really grasps the first three words there. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "What do you mean?" 21:41 <banana> Melanie: "Oh, stop me if I'm wrong, but it's like.. your two jobs, right. Getting people to accept you in these various weird millieux, werewolves and vampires and gamers. Normies, maybe even worse? But you've always got good advice which sounds like.. work product." 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks. "Oh." 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> "I guess so. I never really thought of it like that." 21:42 <banana> "Funny, I always imagined you were taking notes!" 21:43 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I just mean like... that's what I do all the time. I'm good at my jobs because that's what I do all the time. I don't really think of it as a professional skill." 21:43 <VoxPVoxD> "Can you put 'desperate for approval' on a resume?" 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> "Speaking of my jobs, though, I was gonna ask you for a favor, if you're stalled out on your thesis." 21:45 <banana> Melanie: "Yes! You just wouldn't phrase it like that. Motivated communicator.. reliable listener.. a strong mentee." 21:45 <banana> "Oh my God I would love to do anything else." 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You wanna come on my stream?" 21:46 <VoxPVoxD> "Tony and Maggie have both been huge hits." 21:47 <banana> Melanie: "Ohhh. I saw the vod with Tony talking cinema.. that looked fun, for you guys and I guess for 'the chat'. Hm." She looks toward the dock, looks at the TV, down at herself. 21:48 <banana> "I mean certainly if it's a series and that's going down well, I'm available, it's just..." 21:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart watches her do that, and after a beat says, "If you missed the vod of Maggie, then you missed her trying out the virtual mocap avatar." 21:49 <banana> "The which?" 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> "I commissioned art assets and bought a hardware setup for a virtual streaming avatar. For a bit there, Maggie was replaced entirely with a cartoon character. Facial animations, limbs move around. If you throw in a voice distortion, you're effectively totally anonymous." 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> "There are people who stream full time under avatars like that." 21:52 <banana> Melanie: "Right, I understand why that would be appealing.. having my face broadcast live and recorded forever isn't. Nor my Mask. Umm.." It's not that she doesn't trust the technology, but it sounds a bit weird. 21:52 <banana> "Would it be OK if I was... cloaked in shadow?" 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart thinks. "Suggests a certain atmosphere, which in turn suggests certain content... what kind of stuff might you be interested in doing? I talked about movies with Tony, Maggie told stories and talked about craft stuff and then she played a song." 21:54 <banana> "Ah, I haven't got any talents but I've got opinions. Fashion advice, lit review.. all else fails, I guess you could show me a videogame. 21:55 <banana> "I'm not sure what goes with a shadowy atmosphere. Anonymous threats?" 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "People are more interested in skills than talents, I think. The process of getting better at something, of demonstrating how good you've gotten at something. Mere talent's just wasted potential. People watch Twitch to stop thinking about wasted potential." 21:57 <banana> Melanie: "...I could do kata. It might come off as INCREDIBLY tryhard, on my part or yours." 21:58 <banana> "But I don't care, since I'll be enshrouded!" 21:59 <banana> Better reflect later on the fact that the two things she's getting better at are 'unarmed combat' and 'having opinions'. 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If you're anonymizing yourself, then we'll also need to figure out what to call you. People who talk to me on stream typically call me 'Crit', for instance, though my real name's not a secret. Going by a handle is just social convention." 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> "For now, at least." 22:00 <VoxPVoxD> "With Tony and Maggie we just used our real names because they were cool with being themselves and it would've sounded insane making them call me CriticalMass." 22:04 <banana> Melanie: "'Melanie' wouldn't be TOO bad, but I'm 'paperbark' on the Court mailing list and '9mm Deosphistry' on the anime arguments forum. Whatever you think presents best." 22:05 <banana> *Deosophistry 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart folds his arms. "Hmmm. Okay. I have the beginnings of an idea. Three questions: do you want to interact with the chat; how good is your deadpan; how does 'Luca' sound?" 22:09 <banana> "Taking you in order, sure; very good when there's no.. external stressors, I guess; it's not my name but it's fine." 22:10 <banana> "Wait actually. Sorry. Could we please go with Melanie or Paperbark? I know this is contradictory but I feel a bit like.. being Melanie again took a lot of work, you know." 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> Melanie backing off the animated angle is a bit of a busted flush; he commissioned the setup mainly so that Melanie and Nels didn't feel like they had to risk putting different names to their hypothetically-famous faces. But heck, it's still good content and it was only a few grand all told. "Cool! How would you like to do katas and dispense wisdom about anime and high philosophy in 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> like a stagey satirical interview setup. Like James Lipton meets Garth Marenghi?" 22:12 <banana> Melanie: "I know who one of those people is. Sounds fine, I don't mind playing a character - dumbasses included." 22:13 <Crion> The good news is that neither the WNBA nor pre-integration blues and precursor rock and roll really align with his demos. 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> Yeah, it's not something Stewart is worried about, but it's something he has to anticipate them worrying about. 22:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The idea is that I will be the dumbass and you will just straightforwardly express your actual thoughts, sincere or worked or otherwise." 22:15 <banana> "I can do that." 22:18 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Cool. Are you free tonight?" 22:20 <banana> "Yeah, there's not a lot on these days. Let me know if there's any preparation to do - apart from reminding a broken streetlight of the contract I made with it last year." 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "If you're gonna be shadowed then dressing for contrast and stuff isn't going to be an issue. Wear something comfortable that cuts a reasonably wise-looking silhouette. Sweatshirt and a bathrobe or something." 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Like a depressed Jedi." 22:26 <banana> Melanie has so many lumpy sweaters. Even the ones that didn't start out that way. 22:26 <VoxPVoxD> Past that, he's just gotta check the the mod channel and see who's around, and say that he wants URLs banned in the chat from the jump. 22:27 <Crion> It's Fella and Dot tonight, and they're on top of it. 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> Then he's got to get dressed and do his hair. 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> About half an hour before the stream goes live he has to do some lighting tests. He's in an upsettingly shiny black suit (violet shirt, no tie) with big tinted sunglasses hanging from the same pocket as a violet handkerchief. His hair is slicked down and parted in the middle. He looks like a 1970s English TV presenter who likes coke more than he likes beer. 22:30 <VoxPVoxD> How's Melanie looking and feeling? 22:33 <banana> Initially, like a depressed Jedi. She ducks into a wardrobe, reminds the night of the promises it made, and comes out as a shadow, cloaked in a blackness which goes mistly around the edges, trailing wisps and stars; so, like a depressed Sith. 22:35 <banana> *goes misty