InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I had a sammich in my head!"

J.P. = Daniel Jackson (aliensarehere) wrote in musingslogs,
@ 2010-09-21 08:58:00

Entry tags:

barnabas, daniel jackson

Who: Ben and JP
What: Arguing about marketing
Where: The Magic Store
When: Sometime this afternoon/evening
Warnings: Screaming. Yelling. Creative cursing, among other things.

The Magic Store was always an interesting, if crazy, place to work. Between the fires, the water filling the orchestra pit, the electrical sparking, everything and anything could go wrong. That was probably why JP loved it. She wasn't a danger junkie; she didn't like near death experiences. She'd already had one of those. Maybe it was the people. Everyone seemed so nice and silly. Maybe it was something else altogether. She wasn't sure. But she did know, as she crossed her arms and attempted to look haughty, that it had nothing to do with Ben.

"Your way is wrong," she said without preamble. Jim might have asked them to work together on this marketing thing. He might not have. Ben might have invited himself. She didn't know. She didn't care. She didn't want to share her job; it was fine enough when she did it one her own, and she was going to make sure he knew that before he even offered a solution.

JP recognized her approach was combative, but no one had ever said JP was subtle. She recognized her approach was a tad over the top. But no one had ever said JP wasn't melodramatic. She also found preemptive strikes were better than retaliatory ones. If Ben was going to try to get involved, she was going to stop it before it happened. "I don't need to hear your ideas, they're bad, and my way has always worked." She resisted the urge to go neener-neener. It was very difficult, but she somehow managed.

(Post a new comment)

canineguardian
2010-09-22 02:27 am UTC (link)

Ben had been performing at The Magic Store for a while, practically from the day Jim started fixing it up; and although he tended to shy away from specific dates and used more generalized time periods to made his point, he was firmly convinced that he knew what was good for the place just as much as anyone else did. Usually the realm of marketing was left to others like JP, but this time around Jim had asked him to work with her - which was doomed from the start, because Ben didn't work very well with others. He always preferred to do things on his own, and if he had to work with someone then he wanted a person who would basically go along with whatever he said.

JP wasn't that kind of person - not by a long shot. But he'd agreed regardless, thinking maybe he could get through to her for once.

Apparently he'd been wrong. "The fact that you're telling me my ideas are bad before you've even heard most of them just proves that you have no idea what you're talking about." Ben folded his arms across his chest, frowning. "Your way is boring - we need new, fresh ideas to keep people from seeing the same old thing. Just because something 'works' doesn't mean it's good."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

aliensarehere
2010-09-22 01:32 pm UTC (link)

JP huffed, scowling back at him. Arrogant, pretentious little snot. He didn't get it. Marketing was her domain. She did it well enough - people came to the performances, usually in enough droves to keep the place functioning. To be fair, records said it hadn't sold out in years. She hoped Ben didn't know that. He'd use it against her. He probably did.

"My way is not boring," JP snapped back, feeling a twitch starting in her jaw. She didn't usually twitch, but sometimes, a few certain people could drive her to it. Ben was one of them, the obnoxious git. But he was just like that. Irritating and annoying, all stuck on himself and refusing to recognize that anyone else was better. Whatever, she'd show him why he was so wrong. "And just because you think something should change doesn't mean it should." Her scowl deepened. She was all for new and exciting things, but she didn't need help with this. "And maybe I just know what you're going to say. Your ideas never go over well, anyway. What're you gonna say, that you should draw all the pretty posters for us now?" She snickered.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

canineguardian
2010-09-23 06:44 pm UTC (link)

Honestly, they'd only been talking for a few minutes and already she was acting like a spoiled child. Had she never heard of variety, of changing things up and keeping them interesting? Clearly not, if she was so stubbornly rooted in the fact that marketing was 'her' thing. There was a huge damn difference between something that worked and something that worked better - no one ever set goals to become average, after all. The point was to always keep improving.

"It is, because you have no concept of diversity." Ben usually found it hard to separate a discussion from an argument, and this was no exception. "My ideas never go over well? Really? You can't just make up an argument without having any evidence to back it up with. That's pointless." He raised his eyebrows. "See, now I know that this place hasn't sold out in quite some time - so the attendance is decent, but not as good as it could be! Clearly, then, something isn't being done right." He rolled his eyes, not appreciating her snicker in the slightest. "No. Drawing posters is childish. We need to inject some professionalism into our advertising... so people take it seriously, instead of thinking The Magic Store is just a joke."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aliensarehere
2010-09-24 01:35 pm UTC (link)

No concept of diversity? Her? He clearly knew nothing about her, which didn't do much for improving JP's already souring mood. JP loved diversity. She thrived on it. She just didn't see any reason to fix what wasn't broken for some self-absorbed snot who hadn't been working for Jim nearly as long as she had. That gave her momentary pause as she wondered exactly how long Ben had been at the Magic Store. She couldn't remember and it didn't mater. He was still a snot.

"Oh, you make up arguments all the time," she shot back, poking him hard in the shoulder with one finger. "Maybe we're not selling out because the place is a walking death trap!" she shouted, throwing her hands into the air before pointing at sparking wires on the wall beside them. "Electrical fire waiting to happen." She pointed toward the stage. "Crappy floorboards and shoddy trap doors. No one wants to die." And it wasn't as if they had the money to fix stuff. Well. They did now because of that donation. But still.

His comment about the posters cut deeper than she'd admit, and JP jerked back. Her expression became stony and her anger flared. "My posters are professional! I look at modern flyers and Kandinsky and Kooning and Tzara, not that you know who any of them are. Maybe you're just too stupid to understand the awesome complexity of my posters!" That made her feel better, but not by much.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

canineguardian
2010-09-25 05:20 am UTC (link)

Ben looked affronted, as though being accused of making up arguments was possibly one of the worst things to be accused of. There might have been times when he took generalized statements and stretched them a little thin, but for the most part he was diligent in his attempts to make fact-based arguments with the proper evidence to back it up. "Are you even listening to yourself? I don't make up arguments." He glanced down when she poked his shoulder, scowling - although he couldn't deny that the place needed some work; but the key was to get around that until the necessary repairs were made. "No, people don't want to die. They like seeing other people in danger, but don't like being at risk themselves. But that's not the point - obviously we need to fix the place up. That's been obvious from the start." In fact, he'd have to make a mental note to mention something about that to Jim... politely, of course. Jim was one of the few people he actually didn't like arguing with. "But until then, we need a way to work around it. People would go to a condemned building if they thought whatever was inside was worth it. We need to make them forget about the hazards and play up the acts - make them want to come no matter what."

Although it had been an unintentional insult, there was no chance he was going to back down. So he didn't know the names of a bunch of stupid artists, big deal. "Well if they're so great, then what's the problem?" He snapped, feeling his irritation rise. "Call me stupid if you want, but at least I'm objective enough to realize that something needs to change!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aliensarehere
2010-09-25 07:51 pm UTC (link)

Letting out a growl of irritation, JP flung her hands in the air. "Fine, then!" she shouted, her anger making her face blotchy and red. "Fine, we'll try your stupid way." Dissolving to insults always worked to make her feel a bit better. No, not really, that was a huge lie. It didn't help at all. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself angry.

"So why don't you tell me what you have in mind," she demanded, "instead of standing here and fighting with me?" Glaring, JP pulled back, crossing her arms and trying to look taller and more imposing. She suspected it wasn't working.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

canineguardian
2010-09-26 06:59 am UTC (link)

Ben was tactful enough to refrain from smirking or even smiling, but that didn't change the swell of satisfaction he felt at JP's frustrated compliance. Even if he didn't mean to, it seemed he often had this kind of effect on people. Oh well. "Alright then," he said, attempting to capture a dignified sort of calm in spite of her obvious anger.

"Oh, yes. You're clearly not arguing with me at all." His sarcasm flared once again, but he caught himself in time and forced a deep breath. "Anyway. I noticed that when that woman - Main or whatever - mentioned The Magic Store in the paper, our numbers immediately went up. We need to advertise publicly, and I think we have the means to do it now. Our posters should look professional, maybe even with a mixture of actual photography and art - but it needs to be catchy. Bold lettering, bright colors; but nothing tacky or garish. Oh, and I think we need a consistent theme. Something like a motto or an image that really represents The Magic Store. Something identifiable." By the end he was grinning, but it was genuine rather than mocking. "Look, I just want this place to succeed, like you. Like we all do."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aliensarehere
2010-09-27 03:27 pm UTC (link)

JP's scowl deepened, but she placated herself by imagining herself slamming Ben's head into a wall. Repeatedly. And then dropping a piano on him. That coupled with deep breathing exercises calmed her down enough that she could at least listen to him. Until he suggested her posters weren't professional. Resisting the urge to bash her own head on the wall, JP sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. She stuffed her hands into her back pocket and started counting backwards from one hundred. Doing so made it harder to concentrate on what he was saying, but she managed.

At least the thing about the motto was good. "Corporate image," she said, latching onto the idea immediately. "We need a strong corporate image." She remembered that from her only advertising class. Her thoughts whirled. She already had a few ideas. "And I know someone who can take pictures for us." Well, she didn't know if he would. But she'd browbeat him into it, somehow. "You should come up with a tag line, and I can do some logo sketches or something. I'm no good at tag lines."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

canineguardian
2010-09-28 03:25 am UTC (link)

He'd trained himself to ignore other people's reactions while he was speaking, which saved him from becoming distracted and losing his focus - it worked very well, especially when he was required to speak effortlessly in a room full of people... although that was really only required for school-related reasons. Nonetheless, Ben wasn't completely oblivious to JP's reactions, but he didn't pay them much attention either.

Somehow he even managed a smile when she latched onto the 'corporate image' thing. "Exactly." See, he could get along with people... sometimes. In a broad sense. "You know a photographer? Perfect. That saves us some time and effort, at least." Despite his usual lack of enthusiasm for joint projects, showing JP completely out of the way on this one was a bad move. Life was sort of like a chess game sometimes, and long-term thinking was required. "Alright," he agreed after a pause, mainly because he wasn't very talented in the art department. "That would work."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aliensarehere
2010-09-29 01:50 pm UTC (link)

With a huge grin, JP pulled back and punched Ben in the shoulder. Her expression and body language - smiling, and open, approachable - made it obvious she wasn't beating him up because she was pissed. Rather, she was expressing some bizarre, first-grade affection where boys and girls could only let each other know they were okay by way of punches and verbal taunts. "Great, then, I'll see what I can pull together and I'll run some stuff by you in a few days and maybe it'll actually work out." She had her doubts, but it could be worse. At least he wasn't cutting her off the project entirely. Then she'd have had to kill him.

Bouncing back on her heels, she laced her fingers as her expression became distant. "Come back and check on me in a week or something to make sure I've got stuff in the works because you know me I forget about things." JP went through projects at an unbelievable rate simply because she forgot about the old ones. "Or text me or something," she added, reaching into her pocket. "I don't know if you have this, but here." She shoved her business card into his hand and bounded off to her desk to listen to all that old-time Broadway stuff that Jim liked to get her into the mood.

(Reply to this) (Parent)