#sidenote one time when I was little I showed my dad the sims

[iregularlyevadetaxes]

They hate to see us win

[statementends]

What the Ghost?! (Ch5)

Characters: Jon, Georgie, the Admiral

Pairings for this chapter: Jon/Georgie

Warnings: None

Rating: G

Summary: Georgie and Jon have a podcast. It's been getting a lot of attention recently. Shifting POVs of different people interacting with the WTG podcast and crew and how it ties in with the Magnus Institute.

Chapter Summary: Jon and Georgie answer some questions in their summer break Q and A.

AO3: Link

Note: Thank you to @raspberrysundae, @radiosandrecordings, @vissercomplex and @aussie-bookworm for letting me use their usernames/giving me ideas for usernames. 

Big thanks to Raspberrysundae for helping me out with this chapter. 

Sidenote: All the WTG contact info is fake and neither I nor anyone I know owns the handles. 

---

Chapter Five: What the Q?!

“Hello and welcome to What the Q!? I’m Georgie Barker.”

“And I got outvoted on the name.”

“He loves it. He just pretends not to.” 

“It doesn’t make sense!”

“With me is my love and co-host Jonathan Sims and today for the first time we’re doing a special Q and A as a Patreon reward to tied you over during our summer break.” Georgie grinned at Jon and leaned against him. He rolled his eyes but pressed against her as well. “We asked for your questions on Twitter.”

“@WTGcast.”

“And our email.”

“wtgpod@gmail.”

“And of course our Patreon.” 

“Patreon.com/whattheghost.”

“He learned it all himself.”

“I’m not computer illiterate despite the memes out there to the contrary.”

“Why don’t we get to some questions. Shall I read one out for you?”

“Let me guess.”

“Hm?” Georgie looked up from her tablet that contained all the questions she had selected for the show.

Jon had that intense look he’d get sometimes. “Why are you so staunchly skeptical about some things and not about others?” He offered. 

“I’m sure that’s in there somewhere. Did you want to address it now?”

“Hm…” Jon hesitated. Georgie marked the time as a potential cut. Jon didn’t really like getting personal with strangers. When their podcast started climbing the charts on Itunes and he started getting attention directed at him he almost walked away from the entire thing. There was a lot of long nights and conversations before he agreed to keep going. The Q and A was really a bit of a build up. They were getting invitations to conventions which would be essential for their brand and for funding, and their online presence was growing. They’d even have to start hiring other people on soon.  But it would be hard for Jon. Sometimes she wanted grab him by the shoulders. Tell him not to be afraid. That it was holding him back.

But that wasn’t fair. 

“Why don’t we go with your first question and work up to it.” Jon said. “I do have an answer but… maybe let’s not start there?”

“No problem, Jon.” She squeezed his hand and lifted her tablet. “Our first question is from Elfgrunge. They ask: Why do you use a fake accent for the show?” It took all of Georgie’s will to keep a straight face.

There was a long moment of dead air. Jon gave her a look. 

“The people want to know Jon.”

He gave a soft groan. “I don’t know how this rumour started. My accent is real. This is how I talk.”

“You do lean into a bit of a crypt keeper vibe for the intro.”

“Oh yes,” Jon nodded in agreement. “That’s for effect, but it’s more about pitch than my accent.”

“Confirmed. Jon is a citizen of the United Kingdom and speaks like a local. Or at least that’s what he claims. Why don’t you ask the next question?”

He smiled at her as he took the tablet.

“Desert-Lurker has a question for you, Georgie: have you always been into horror? Do you have a favourite horror writer?” 

Georgie laughed. “Well… it’s funny because what me and Jon are doing… it is in the category of a horror podcast. Creepy stories every two weeks about things that are unbelievable, but I’m not sure if horror is exactly the right word for it.”

“A lot--the majority I’m fairly certain are just stories,” Jon added raising his eyebrows to see if his interjection was alright. She nodded.

“From Jon’s perspective at least,” She agreed. “But our goal is to research and share real people’s stories and experiences with the supernatural. I know we get a lot of comments that we’re writing the stories we share ourselves and Jon and I are just doing a bit, but we aren’t. People send us stories, we research the ones that interest us and share our research with all of you. That said I used to be into horror comics as a kid, but … fell out of it. Swamp Thing was a favourite, and Hellblazer. Constantine was actually pretty big for me thinking about it. Seeing a bisexual character in the early 2000s was rare. But… yeah I’m not interested in the horror genre as an escape anymore.”

Jon was nodding along with her story. He passed her back the tablet. 

“Let’s go to a question for both of us. This one comes from Mothman-is-my-Dad. Great username: How do you decide which submissions and stories to go forward with? Do you go in order or do you have a process?”

“Oh, that’s a good question,” Jon said approvingly.

“Well, to start with we do not make a show for every story sent in.” Georgie said. 

“Yes,” Jon agreed. “That would be a lot of work, and… while I have certain reservations…--”

“Are you still mad about Ghost spider?”

“Don’t talk to me about Ghost spider.-- while I disparage some of the stories sent in, the ones that we don’t record. Well.” His voice dropped disapprovingly. “You can only imagine.” 

Georgie made an exaggerated nod. She was the one looking through all those emails after all. The things people would send them. Yikes. She continued:

“I look through the submissions and weed out the ones that aren’t viable. Sometimes it’s because it’s obviously fake, sometimes because there isn’t enough information for us to get started. Even then we have a very large backlog of stories that we’d like to look into.”

Jon hummed. “We put them into categories: does this story have potential to be true? Are there ways we can do follow up? Will our listeners want to hear about it?”

“Will Jon want to research it?”

“Well…”

“Not that I slack being producer, sound mixer, and social media head of our little company, but Jon does the majority of information gathering and research. I’ll give him a few with potential and he’ll choose one. We go from there. Sometimes he flat out refuses.”

“I--yes…some of them just don’t… it’s a gut thing.”

Georgie snorted.

“What?”

“It’s just funny for you to say that.”

“Fair enough.”

“And, just so we’re clear. He might whinge about it, but he did approve Ghost Spider enough to do the research.”

“There were elements strange enough to warrant investigation. Honestly though I should have put my foot down the very idea of it--But…yes. I’ll take the story and look into any provided evidence and hand off my findings to Georgie. We build the episode around that.”

“And then the magic happens,” Georgie finished with a one handed jazz hand for Jon’s benefit. He smiled and plucked the tablet from her.

He snorted reading over the question.

“Georgie, Raspberrysundae wants to know: Who’s the goodest boy? Jon or the Admiral?”

Georgie grinned. “Jon comes in second place for sure.” 

“I can accept that. He’s a tough cat to beat.”

“To be fair, Jon would sell me up the river for the Admiral, it’s all mutual.” 

Maybe because he heard his name a paw was suddenly poking under the doorway. Georgie and Jon burst out laughing. Immediately Jon went to open the door. Georgie noted the time for the recording although she thought she might keep it in since it was a bit of a behind the scenes episode.

“See, look at you babying him. No cats in the studio.” 

“He’ll be good.” Jon said scooping the large cat into his arms and bringing him over. Georgie gave the Admiral a scritch on the head. 

“He’s purring all over the equipment.” 

“Question and Answers are supposed to be more real aren’t they?” 

“Give me my cat.” She pulled the Admiral into her arms and he happily flopped across her lap. “Don’t mind the purring, Jon once again has chosen cat over sound quality.” 

“Oh, they love it,” Jon smirked. His hand ran through the Admiral’s fur. She gently pushed the cat back into Jon’s lap so she could maneuver the tablet and her notes a bit easier.

Georgie skimmed through the questions. “Jons-Skepticism asks: When you came out with your Pride WTG logo pins I was super excited that you included aro and ace. You said when you announced them that you would have to keep an ace pin especially for Jon. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, I was wondering though if Jon is ace or if it was just a joke?”

She had mentioned before hand to Jon that there was a question about it and asked if he wanted to include it in their Q and A. He had agreed. 

“That was a very recent episode so I think it will be good to answer this one directly. There was a bit of a backlash accusing Georgie of outing me on the podcast or of making a rude joke, but we do edit this, and I have a little bit of say for what gets included.”

“Just a little. Wouldn’t want it to go to his head.” 

“Georgie was just being… sweet. She wasn’t making a joke at anyone’s expense. The truth is I don’t really know much about the community and the terms used. Georgie has been helpful in that, but I’m…” He trailed off thinking about it. “I grew up as … odd for a lot of reasons. A lot of things… didn’t make sense to me… you know how I feel about evidence and proper justification of things. Gender and orientation weren’t things I struggled with exactly. It was just a… lack of interest? Boys can’t wear skirts, girls can’t be on the football team. It seemed like useless rhetoric. And when you get to a certain age you… feel a certain way. Sorry. I’m trying to… explain it. My internal feelings never had to interact with the rest of the world. I saw myself as weird and I didn’t expect that others would understand me or feel the way I did. Society tries to convince us that we’re broken if we’re not the same as everyone else. Sometimes it succeeds… Georgie has helped me understand. I’m a private person. I don’t think I would be able to talk about it without her…” He sighed. “I’m rambling I hate rambling. I’m just… learning. Asexual fits… with how I am. I’ve never really needed a label before, or even knew there was one. I was sort of insulted when I heard the term the first time thinking about single-celled organisms. I like it better now. There is a comfort in it, that other people are the same… so I wanted to pass that on. That’s why we kept it. It’s not really anyone’s business… but maybe if one of the authors I read as a child had written about someone like me I would have felt different in my… more awkward years. We were trying to go for casual.”

“We forgot that sometimes it’s better to be explicit.” 

They chuckled. 

Georgie checked the time. 

“Alright Jon, I think we have time for one more question which is a pretty big one. This comes from MKBwood: Have either of you seen the supernatural before?”

Jon started stroking the Admiral’s fur and a long silence stretched between them. As they both were urging the other to go first.

They had talked about it before… in the vaguest sense. When they started Georgie asked. Jon said yes. It had come as a surprise considering his skepticism, but he was openly researching the supernatural back in school, there had to be a reason for it. And Georgie… well… she had only answered: Yeah. Me too. They had never gone into detail. It wasn’t about trust it was like… infection. She didn’t want Jon to get poisoned by it the same way she had. But maybe he had his own poison too. 

Jon spoke first, his attention solely on the Admiral. 

“I… have, but I won’t go into it.” He smiled bitterly. “I can’t prove it you see. There’s no point in sharing something that can’t be proven. And yes. I hate that I can’t. Perhaps that’s an answer for my brand of skepticism. I know that there are things out there. But… I have to believe there can’t be that many of the… things like it. Not without solid evidence.”

Oh. That did explain a lot. 

“I have as well.” Georgie said slowly. “That was when I stopped liking horror stories.” She added ironically. “When it’s real the fantasy becomes unappetizing and… not very interesting. There are things in our world that are secret. That we don’t understand. Maybe it goes back to what Jon was saying about… seeing and knowing others that have the same experiences as you. There’s a comfort in it, and spreading information that is interesting, that maybe could even save somebody is the right thing to do. I’m not afraid of the things out there. But they cause a lot of trouble.” 

More silence between them. Absentmindedly Georgie noted it. 

“Well,” She forced a brighter tone. “On that cheerful note I think we’ll call it there. Thank you so much to those that submitted questions. I’m Georgie Barker.”

“And I’m Jonathan Sims.”

“Goodbye!” 

This would be the part where the outro and theme music would play, but that would all be edited in later. Jon let the Admiral crawl off his lap and over to Georgie. She stroked his fur. 

“I don’t suppose you want to talk about it?” She asked. 

“I don’t ever want to talk about it, Georgie… it. It was a Leitner.”

“The books?”

“Yes.” He looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “It was… a spider.”

“Oh. That explains…”

“The disdain for them? Yes. I… I’ll never forget it. I remember every line of that book… what about you?”

“A dead woman spoke to me,” Georgie replied. “She told me the future. She stole my fear, or maybe there was just nothing scarier than what she had said.” 

Jon nodded pensively. 

“I think that’s good.” Georgie said turning off the equipment. “Want to take the rest of the night off? I’ll start editing tomorrow. We can get takeout.”

“As long as it’s not Hungarian.” Jon forced a smile, his eyes weren’t in it. He was still thinking of his spider. 

“I suppose we can get a curry instead then.” She took his hand and pulled him to a stand. Held him and kissed his cheek. 

“I’m alright. I just… try not to think about it.” 

“One day we’ll owe each other the stories, but maybe not today?”

“Yes. Not today.”