in which jon is keeping out of trouble
A youtube video played on a laptop at the kitchen table. Daisy was at the stove grinning like crazy while Basira’s eyes were glued to the screen.
“Now, for this next ghost, the facts lead to an underground tunnel. It’s normally cut off from the public, but for once we wont have to break in because of a special guest!”
Melanie’s voice rang cheerfully followed by a small bit of static that mumbled ‘we could break into less places if-’ before getting cut off.
“This is [----]. We are going to have to censor out her name so her job isn’t at risk, but would be rude to not introduce her.” Melanie gestured to Daisy, whose face was glitched out using Jon’s, and now almost Ghost Hunt UK’s, signature green eye glitching pattern. Jon got used to filming enough that it’s almost like a mask that follows who ever couldn’t be on camera. And since it was controlled at filming, they never needed to worry about editing or missing a shot.
“Wow, my love is an internet star.” Basira’s voice had a very fake ton of excitement to it. “
“Jon had a hunch it was gunna be a very Buried area, so who better than me to act as guard dog for them?” Daisy gestured to herself with the spatula. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it was-”
“Shh, don’t spoil it for me. Tell me after. I want to see how impressive your acting skills are.” Basira had been enjoying the show for the most part lately. It started as a way to tease Jon, but Melanie’s work was quite good. Basira didn’t doubt how Melanie might’ve ended up in the archives in the future that wasn’t going to be.
“Oh, yeah, don’t have those.” Daisy grinned as she headed to the fridge to grab something for cooking. “Not a spoiler though, Jon was the one to help me with my hair. Melanie was very adamant about if I had to have my face censored, that my hair should be radiant. It was probably an exaggeration, but Jon whipped out youtube.”
“Hm, yeah. I can see that. That braid isn’t your normal style. It’s nice.”
“Jon spent about 15 minutes looking at thumbnails till he was content.”
The video continued to play, but nothing of too much excitement happened while the two were distracted. It was Melanie going over some of the sponsors since they tended to shoot several placements throughout the night of filming. That way whenever there was a downtime, they could put the product placement there.
The fact the product placement was run at the beginning always was a sign that the rest of the episode was about to be off the walls.
--
Jon put down the camera after Melanie finished up the whole product placement edition 1.
“We should get a few shots of Daisy unlocking the door now, thinking we will only need maybe two? One normal and chill than one from a Watching angle.”
“Oh? You normally hate doing those?” Melanie smiled at that and teased “what with the whole ‘making it look like a security camera could traumatize all our viewers if you shot it’ nonsense.”
“I- yes I know. And I won’t do it that way. Bad enough I had to explain what I was to your editor so I didn’t end up haunting their dreams cause they stumbled on our test footage. I meant there is a chair there so I would hold the camera up high.”
“Wow, how would that even work? Everyone sees a creepy clip and you get unlimited snacking?” Daisy tworled the keys on her finger.
“That’s what Jon thinks would happen. I can’t blame him though. I don’t want to creep them out too much. Jon’s just dramatic about it.”
“That checks out.” Daisy started to do the first unlock while Jon hoovered. She was extremely amused at how into it Jon got as she saw it first hand. She’d have to remember to ask him later if it counted as feeding since still watching.
“Do you normally do it just the two of you? Don’t people like have, I dunno, sound teams or something?”
“Nah, they bailed on me after a bad run, not right away, but slowly. So just Jon and I for the really spooky-” Jon groaned when Melanie said that “-ones. Otherwise I have another person that helps film when Jon’s not interested. They generally don’t like being around Jon.”
Daisy made a sharp inhale since that kinda implied many less than good things.
“It’s not that bad. I mean it is, but it’s only when cameras are involved. I kinda almost made them terrified to take pictures? It was about a year back when I was getting used to all the changes.”
“Ah.” Daisy could tell there were layers there.
Jon finished finagling the chair to get the view he wanted. “Alright. That should be good enough Grace won’t complain about not having enough interesting things to include in the early edits. Deeper we go?”
Melanie grinned and lead the way, with Daisy behind her. Jon kept some distance, making sure that both he and the camera took it all in. For as much as Jon seemed to enjoy being ‘grumpy academic’, seeing him in full exploration mode was a nice change.
They continued through the old structures that seemed to change building styles the deeper they went. Not like how the tunnels were. It was more like buildings kept being built over old, without removing the old ones.
Melanie talked about the history of each floor, chatting with Daisy about the ruins. Jon chimed in from time to time with facts, sometimes useful things, other times not so much.
Then they arrived at their destination to find the ‘haunted’ rope.
--
Daisy came over to the table with breakfast when one of the ads interrupted the video.
“A rope?” Basira took her plate and made room for Daisy.
“That was my thoughts exactly when I first saw it. Doesn’t look like much on camera, but being near it while it did its thing? Pretty sure if King wasn’t claustrophobic, she would be now if I wasn’t there.”
The ad finished and returned to Melanie reaching out to grab the rope, as the legend said to, and the video began to glitch out with a moaning sound that seemed to cause the static in the video to pulse with it. Jon’s voice could be heard mixed in, but it wasn’t words so much as nervous noises.
Basira made a noise of interest when Daisy pointed out. “Nothing was happening. She was just standing there holding the rope while Jon was watching the entity do it’s thing. He told me after it was like being in the coffin all over again, but less? He and I couldn’t feel it the same as King did. ”
“Seems pretty reckless. She okay?”
“Oh yeah, Jon and I helped her out. More me than him.” Daisy looked rather pleased with herself.
--
Georgie threw an orange across the room for Melanie.
“Thanks for letting me crash at your place.” Melanie caught it without disturbing the furball on her lap. “Being able to monitor the episode launch-”
“Don’t mention it. My couch is always open. Why you think it’s so dang worn in?” Georgie made her way over and plopped next to Melanie on the open spot, Leaning into Melanie a bit to see the laptop screen. “It upload alright? Or too spooky for youtube?”
“It loaded fine. Comments are hilarious on this one so far. Seems like Martin went off on someone for saying that the effects were lame.”
“It’s sweet how supportive he is.” Georgie looked to the comment Melanie pointed out. “Oh wow. He really did go off. Didn’t think he understood that much about editing?” Georgie grinned as she sent a text to Jon teasing him about his supportive boyfriend.
Georgie almost dropped her phone when getting the response.
Convo between Jon and Georgie
Georgie: Just saw Martin’s battle on youtube. Such a loving bf.
Jon: I’m dying, you are seeing the filtered version. Martin is very upset at this commenter cause the Eye deemed it was appropriate to inform him that the commenter has been trying to locate my identity because they are convinced that I must be sexy because of my voice.
Also you could have a loving gf battle for you in the comments like me if you tried.Georgie: you shit, Melanie is right here, what if she saw?!
Jon: I Know :) wasn’t expecting that orange to distract her so much...
Georgie sighs while quickly sending a picture of the Admiral to Jon to make it so that conversation text isn’t visible as they keep talking.