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 Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:12 pm
Jade had no idea what she'd done wrong but somehow she'd managed to ******** up her entire light system for the bedroom she'd converted into a mini studio for all of her youtubing. On top of that, in her poor attempts to fix it using google, she'd ******** up her sound system too. All in all, it was a disaster.
And, despite how calm and collected she usually was, Jade was a mess. Her new video was going to take days of filming and she had less than a week to get everything fixed and ready by the time Tuesday rolled around. She'd never missed her schedule video posting, her fans would be devastated and she couldn't stand the thought.
So, she'd reached out to one of her fellow youtubers in hopes that they knew someone who could help her in DC. It was just her luck that they did and she'd promptly called and arranged for the guy to come to her apartment.
He was due any minute now and Jade was flitting around her apartment frantically picking up stray clothing here, garbage there in an attempt to keep it from looking like a giant mess.
(She only kinda made it look presentable.)
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:58 am
The recommendation had come from one of Basil's old acquaintances; though to be perfectly honest, he hardly remembered who exactly they were. Still, they'd gotten him a new job, which was always a good thing. Trying to live off the meager means of a janitorial job wasn't exactly helpful in paying rent, and the call for someone to fix lighting had come at the perfect time.
He didn't know the young woman he was going to meet, but that had never deterred Basil before. He stood outside of the door now, a backpack slung over a shoulder, and a small note card in his hand that he was now squinting at from behind black framed glasses, double checking the address.
Everything looked the way it should, so Basil lifted a hand and knocked.
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 2:54 pm
Jade had been in the process of picking up a bunch of stray clothing, so much that her arms were full, when someone knocked on her door. Her head shot up, a fatal mistake because she'd been leaning under her desk, reaching for a stray shirt, and promptly banged her head against the wood. A very loud and vulgar string off curses, awkward shuffling, and her drop her collected garments hastily into the basket in the corner of the room.
She missed and half of the clothing fell in a heap beside the basket.
Jade huffed, but didn't bother fixing it because she'd already kept her guest waiting for so long and hurried to the door. She yanked it open, short white hair disheveled and her cheeks tinged red when she beamed at him happily.
"Basil?" Pale brows arched upward when she thrust a hand forward. "I'm Jade, though I suppose you already know that..." Her grin faltered when she worried down on her lip before stepping back and gesturing for him to come inside. "Sorry about the mess, I've been having a heyday over this malfunction."
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 8:09 pm
Through the closed door, Basil distinctly heard a distant thump, and then muffled swearing that sounded as though someone had just knocked into something. He waited patiently, standing quite still, one hand resting on the strap of his bag, the other at his side.
And eventually the door opened, though a few seconds longer than was strictly polite to be standing there. A young woman stood in front of him, perhaps a few years older than himself, white hair standing out against her pinked cheeks. She looked distinctly harassed, but the smile was perfectly friendly and pleasant.
Basil accepted her outstretched hand and gave a little nod. "Basil, yes," he said. "A pleasure, Jade."
He stepped inside and glanced around, eyebrows raised at the heap of clothing beside the basket. But he merely looked back at Jade, unfazed by the chaos happening inside, and said, "That's all right. I understand you need a bit of help. What exactly is the problem?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 1:46 pm
Blue eyes drifted across Basil's body, took in the way he was dressed and skimmed over the way he held himself, curiously she cocked her head before he reminded her why he was here and she blinked. "Oh yes! Right. Uh, this way," she said hurriedly, words spilling from her mouth quickly as she ushered him into the master bedroom that had become her studio.
It felt odd, having another person in her apartment. She hadn't had guest over in sometime, opting to run solo videos rather than featuring guests or doing skits that required another person. Perhaps that's why everything went to s**t, because she was attempting to change things up.
"I-- I run a youtube channel, put out videos every Tuesday and in the process of setting up for my next video," she paused, long enough to sigh when she gestured at the heap of wires that sat in a tangled mess. "I ******** up the lights and then-- when trying to figure out what I did wrong well...there went the sound." Her tone had turned a little panicky as she set a hand on one hip and pushed her hair back with the other one.
"I'm not-- I'm not very tech savvy, which is probably really laughable considering what I do for a living but my old roommate, before I moved back to DC, they were a tech wiz, always helping me..."
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 4:33 pm
Basil followed quite calmly, blinking around at the apartment before his gaze went back to Jade. He listened to her explanation without comment, instead preferring to listen, rather than say anything at present. Every so often, he would nod in understanding, and Basil let the bag he was carrying slide off of his shoulder and rest on the floor.
"No worries," he said, kneeling beside the bag and unzipping it. "It probably just looks worse than it is. You've probably tangled the input and output cords, they look a bit stuck here. I'll unplug everything and then reroute the sound once more, so that everything goes well."
Basil reached for the first set of cords and began unwinding them, careful and quick in his movements.
"Where did you want the sound to come out from? A laptop? Or are you running sound from a mic to a laptop?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:58 pm
When she finished explaining things, Jade opted to watch Basil's posture and then, the way he moved. People were fascinating and the woman couldn't get enough of trying to read them. Anything she didn't understand was fascinating to her, therefore Basil and his technical knowledge was fascinating.
"Yeah, that's probably it," she replied absentmindedly, not really paying proper attention to the words because she was too busy examining him. He worked fast and neatly, Jade appreciated that.
"Most of the time I work off of my laptop, if they're solo videos," she told him after a beat, upon realizing he'd asked a question and was waiting for an answer. "But I've got mics set up throughout the room, for skits and guest appearances. None of them are working, last I checked."
Maybe she needed to hire a permanent tech person after this, if he could fix it.
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:32 pm
He set everything out and then crouched down again, tugging experimentally on one or two of the cords to see where they led. Pulling out a few of them, Basil laid them down in neat lines, and nodded at Jade without actually looking up at her.
"So we'll just run the input cable from your laptop to the speakers, and then another from your mic to your laptop. Everything should be running from a power distro, which it looks like you have over there, but I don't see any cables that are connected properly."
Basil shifted and leaned over, one hand on top of the small black box to check the front of it.
"That's probably why your mics aren't working; did you have someone set this up for you, or did you set it up yourself?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 1:09 pm
Well, this whole thing was embarrassing but Jade stood tall, beaming at Basil as he explained what he was going to do and where the problems lay. She'd made a stab at something she didn't know much about and it didn't work out, that was okay. Basil was here to fix it.
Everything would be fine, there was no point in getting her knickers in a twist over it now.
"Both," she answered truthfully, shrugging her shoulders. "Originally someone else did but between this video set up and the last things got unplugged and I probably put them in incorrectly." There was no shame in admitting that she lacked knowledge, she reminded herself. "I understand basic technology, not all this extra stuff. I tried, but google was useless since I still messed up."
It appeared that despite the general consensus, google did not in fact know everything.
"I'm glad I found you though, since you clearly know what you're doing. I could definitely use some lessons or something." Probably, if she wanted to keep from having to call Basil every time she shot a video with a different set up. "Unless, you're looking for like a more permanent part-time gig. I don't spend too much time shooting footage, most of it's in editing which I, shockingly, am great at. I could definitely use help with the rest of the tech stuff."
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 5:02 pm
"It's not a big deal," said Basil mildly, as he bent over the power distro. His eyes followed the lines of the cables, then carefully switched the entire thing off, just in case. "I'll start connecting them again, starting with the grounder here, and then one by one after that."
He began to work, laying out cords and reattaching them with a practiced ease. Jade's offer momentarily went in one ear and out the next as Basil concentrated; he'd never been particularly good at conversing while in his own mind, and tended to overlook hearing someone actually talk most of the time.
It was a good five minutes later before he said,
"If you need lessons, I wouldn't mind; my work right now is rather slow."
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 1:01 pm
"I really-- I really appreciate it, all of it.," Jade breathed slowly, watching him work with interest. She found it fascinating how he moved decisively, how he knew exactly what he was doing. She wanted that, she only felt like she had that when she was in front of the camera or editing footage.
It didn't take her long to realize that her words had fallen on deaf ears, especially when it took him five minutes to respond to her word vomit. But, instead of being irritated she found it amusing. She liked that his concentration was focused towards one thing.
"Yeah, I'd really like that. I would pay you, obviously since I'm occupying your time with tech related nonsense." Jade responded, wry grin stretched across her pretty mouth. Plus, it'd give her an excuse to bring him back over if she ******** stuff up too badly.
Besides, Jade liked collecting people, friends, and Basil seemed like he'd be a good addition. "What got you into tech work anyway?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:31 pm
He let out a small hum of thought, Basil plugging in a few more cords. He worked in silence for a couple of minutes, rerouting and double checking everything as he went, meticulously making sure that all of the cords were the proper length and not tangled.
"I'll consider it," he said finally, clearly picking up the conversation from five minutes prior as if they'd never stopped talking. "It seems...well, rather a good opportunity, I'll take a look."
He ran a cable from the laptop to the next speaker.
"I took a class in high school," said Basil absently, tapping a finger against one of the speakers. "It was rather more interesting than I thought it would be, so I kept going with it. It's not, strictly speaking, my first choice in an actual career, but it pays the bills."
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 2:09 pm
Basil's ability to pick up pieces of conversation and carry on like she hadn't said anything else was astounding. Jade liked it. Found it interesting and intriguing. "It'd be great to like, understand this better and I learn so much better in person rather than like from videos, which is ridiculous given that I do educational videos sometimes."
But that was beside the point because, really, the things she gave "instructions" on were make up or hair things or just vague cosmetics. That was easy, this stuff? Complicated.
"You gotta do what you gotta do to make a living," Jade declared with a firm nod of her head as she eagerly watched Basil do his thing. "Not everyone is as lucky as I am, I know that."
The entertainer knew that eventually she'd have to figure out how the career would progress, but that was for another time when she didn't have company.
"I promise I'm good company, if you're worried about that."
In Jade's opinion she was the best company.kuropeco for some reason i never logged this neutral
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:15 pm
"Hands-on experience tends to be more valuable than reading things or observing things, in my experience," said Basil, connecting two ends of a cord together and examining them carefully. "Not to say that there isn't merit in reading or watching, but I tend to do my best straight in situations."
He flashed Jade a curious look and said, "I think for the most part you do very well for yourself, at least from what I've seen."
Basil shifted a few more cords, and then gave a distracted nod and said, "I've not had any worries about that, you seem quite friendly," before pushing himself to his feet. He made his way to the speakers and flipped a few switches, shifted a few things, and pressed a button.
"There," he said, after a moment, "Let's try this out."
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 10:21 am
"Oh absolutely but some of those videos are gold. I learned a lot about different make-up techniques and I don't know. Seeing those cool mash-ups or even spin-offs, spoof videos?" Jade shook her head, reminiscing fondly. She remembered the early days of YouTube and how it'd blow up and if someone had asked her what she thought she'd be doing when she grew up back when she first started watching videos on it.
Well, she wouldn't have dreamed that she'd be one of those people who's subscribers had hit 300k and her video views had skyrocketed. She was incredibly lucky she knew and she was grateful for it.
"You make it look so easy you know," she commented a bit quietly, pushing off the wall and crossing over to him so she could peer a little more freely. When he'd finished she strode over to where her laptop was perched and hit the play button so that the soft stream of Cartel came flooding out the speakers.
Then she moved over to one of her spotlights, flicking the switch to have it light up just as it was intended to.
"You are a life saver. Thank you. Let me pay you and buy you lunch?"
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