“Is that everything?” Kamara asked with a tired expression.
“Yes. I believe it is. I will make sure to contact everyone on the list to get them on board as soon as possible.” Jasmine replied as she stood up from the table seat.
“Ok, thank you,” Kam said as he laid his head on the table, it was late and he was incredibly tired. He had just finished working on the software part of his home security system, which took him a majority of the day.
That along with him stressing about how he’s gonna explain to Issa why he has two random women living in his house-made him already ready to go to sleep.
But as soon as he finished Jasmine showed up with a list of people that she thought were good candidates for him to hire. So not wanting to piss the woman off anymore, Kamara spent an hour and a half going through all the candidates for each position and picking the two he liked the best, for interviews.
Fortunately, there were never more than five people for each job. Kam found out that, Jasmine is incredibly picky about situations like this. Kam was also happy that Jasmine had volunteered to do the interviews since he was going to be ‘busy’ for the next month.
Though he did have a sneaky suspicion that she did not trust him to make a good decision.
“Yes, you have a wonderful night Kamara.” She then made he way back to her office to put her papers away. She had been working all day and was ready to go to sleep just as much as Kamara.
Kam sighed and made his way up the stairs to his room and immediately fell asleep on the bed. He usually would like to take shower before bed to get the day's dirt off of him, but today had been so taxing for him mentally that he couldn’t be bothered. He had even forgotten to call Issa back like he had told her he would.
***
March 16th,1962
The next morning Kam woke up to a knocking on his door.
*knock knock*
“Kamara, you need to wake up. It is already 9 am, and we have things to discuss.” he heard Jasmine’s voice from the other end of the door
“What could we possibly have to talk about this early in the morning” Kam groaned out as he turned to a more comfortable position.
“You said that you planned on being a streamer and making an…RP server. While I don’t know what an ‘RP Server’ is, I do feel I have found something that can help you with your streaming career.” she said patiently from the other end of the door.
When Kam heard that his eyes opened, “fuuuuck, ok give me a minute and I’ll be out.” he groaned as he got up to make his way to get ready for the day.
“I will be waiting by your office whenever you’re ready,” Jasmine called and made her way back down to her office to get the information she had prepared earlier in the day.
While she knew what streaming was beforehand she had no idea about the intricacies that surrounded it and how one could become successful doing it. While she had managed influencers before, they were at the top of the top like Henry Black or Kelsey Fondo. And by the time she was through with them, most people had forgotten they had started off as social media influencers.
Streaming was a whole nother field for her because there was no longer that mystique that celebrities and influencers (to a lesser degree) had. There is constant interaction for five to eight hours a day, though it does vary depending on the person. There is no good way to filter and separate the streaming personality from their regular personality like other entertainment professions. The only example that she could think of where this would work is if they went all-in on a persona.
Like the v-tubers she saw or like the streamer Surgeon Dr., who played a rowdy, unhinged, and disgraced surgeon. Besides that she saw no real way to separate, there were ways to mitigate the exposure but no definitive way to do so, without completely changing your face or personality.
But while she didn't know too much about streaming or really liked it once she learned about it. She did her best to find out what path she and Kam could take to get them to where he wanted to be. And through her research she had found a couple of things that showed promise, now she just had to learn about what an ‘RP server’ is and what Kamara's ultimate goal for streaming is.
After about twenty-five minutes Kamara left his room, dressed in a light blue and peach sweatsuit with white sneakers, and made his way to his office.
“Good morning Kamara.” Jasmine greeted outside of the door.
“Good morning Jasmine, how was your first night here?” he yawned while unlocking the door.
‘I need to install a keypad instead. This key shit is overrated’ he thought to himself as he walked in.
“It was fine, a bit quieter than I am used to, but overall a good first night. Hopefully, today will be just as good” she answered as she followed behind him.
She got a good look at the messy room and her eyes turned toward the fish tank. Although this wasn’t her first time in the room she had not been paying much attention to her surroundings and was intently focused on the fusion cell. So she did not have a chance to notice the giant fish tank that took up most of the wall in the room.
“So this is the fish tank you were talking about? Interesting,” she commented before sitting down in the only chair that was in the room beside the one behind the desk.
“Mmhm, grandfather liked fish and all that. Anyways, you said you had some stuff to help with my streaming career?” he asked as he leaned forwards with eager eyes.
“Yes I have a few things that I want to show you but first we need to get some housekeeping things in order so that I can smoothly function as your assistant slash manager in the future,” Jasmine informed as she put the papers regarding the streaming stuff on the desk. She then took out a pen and paper to write down anything she found important.
“Ok, what do you need?” Kam asked leaning back into his chair
“First, I need access to your banking accounts, if I am going to function as your assistant slash manager I need to be able to purchase things when you need them. If you are unsure about the bank account a credit card will also suffice.”
“...Yea, that's fine. I don’t think the Councilors would send someone shady to work for me, at least I hope not. What else” Kam decided after a bit of thought.
“Ok, thank you. Though I wished you would've taken more time to answer, it saves me a lot of time. Next, could you please give me a list of people you have already hired? And the amount of money that you have spent with them. Also, any contact information you have for them. It is best I have them so that I can do my job as your assistant more effectively.”
“Yea, here let me write it down for you” Kam then spent a minute writing down everyone that he had paid so far and gave it to Jasmine.
Jasmine looked over the list for a few seconds before storing it in a folder she brought with her.
“Thank you, this will help a lot. Also, I would like to apologize for my outburst yesterday. It was uncalled for and I have no right to tell you how to spend your money “ She then stood up and gave a deep bow.
“Relax, relax it's fine. I promise it's ok. Anyways you were right, it was kind of reckless of me to spend that much money without a guarantee. I was just confident that everything would work out.” Kamara hurriedly replied
“I understand, in the future hopefully we will never have to worry about your financial problems” Jasmine smiled as she sat back down. “Now onto the next thing, what are your long-term goals for your life Kamara? You have at the age of twenty achieved something that most people work their whole lives for. I want to know what you want to do so that I may do my best to help you.”
“You’ve got it all wrong Jasmine,” Kam said with a knowing smile
“What have I got wrong?” she asked as she sat her pen down on her notepad and looked up at him.
“I have not achieved any of my goals so far, I’ve only just begone. The only reason that I made the fusion cell is so that I can fund my goals. And maybe to live a little bit better.” Kam answered as he leaned back in his chair.
Jasmine looked at Kam with a surprised face, it's not every day that someone tells you that making a billion credits is only a step in their lifelong goals. Although she was surprised she quickly got over it and asked the most important question she would today.
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“If getting the money was only a stepping stone, then my question still stands. What is your end goal?” she was started to get excited.
‘If his initial goal were something so big. His ultimate goal must be huge. If how he treated the nuclear fusion is an example that he must have some truly great things cooking in his mind. Maybe his visions for the future are much grander than I can even imagine. This might be an even better opportunity than I anticipated.’ Jasmine's thoughts raced in the seconds between her question and Kam's reply. Her excitement reaching an all-time high as she anticipates his next response.
With the largest smile, he could muster and slowly answered “I’ve already told you, Jasmine. I, want, to, be, a, streamer. My dream is to become an RP Streamer.”
When Jasmine heard that her face visibly faltered for a second as the ideas and dreams she had been thinking of quickly crumbled to dust as the person who she thought had limitless potential told her he planned to waste it.
“That's it? Just a streamer?” She questions as she tried to reign in her disappointment.
Kam thought for a second about if becoming an RP streamer was really his only goal in life.
‘Having my own org would be nice too. I always seemed like the people in the orgs had fun together.’
“Hmm… well starting a streaming organization would be nice,” Kam said after a brief thought about it. His career at the moment was the most important thing for him.
‘Ok, ok, I can work with this. At least he wants to branch out. If I’m not mistaken an organization is just another word for a company for multiple streamers to work under. That will be a nice start. Maybe with enough push and I can get him to branch out even further. Maybe start his own e-sports team, many celebrities are starting to invest in them. From there I can push to maybe owning a gaming company. And if he is capable of making it, maybe even selling tech. He’s young, I have plenty of time to change his mind. But first, I need to get his career from the ground up. I’ll be damned if I let him only be a streamer.’ Jasmine quickly made plans in her mind on how she would get Kam to branch out into other things.
There was little to no incentive for her to help him do any of this, her paycheck was guaranteed regardless of what he did. But Jasmine was never one to take her job lightly nor did she like seeing wasted potential. She was going to make sure he reached the highest of heights even if she had to drag him kicking and screaming.
“Ok, I will do my best to help you with that. I did have a few more questions to ask you but since you have brought up streaming I feel that it is best to get on that topic. But first I need to ask you, what is an RP server? I know it means role-playing, but I looked online and couldn’t find anything related to it in regards to streaming. Could you explain to me what it is?”
Kam's eye’s lit up when he heard the question “Absolutely, so it is exactly like other roleplaying games. You make and pretend to be a character in a different world. Where mine is going to be different from the rest is that I plan on making a game and server that is specifically dedicated to roleplaying. It will be a full city where people can….” Kam then began to rattle on and on about his plans for his future server and game.
After about twelve minutes he was finally finished and Jasmine had a notepad full of notes about the server and a wide smile on her face.
‘Oh, he is much more ambitious than I thought. If he is able to do everything he just told me then I won’t have to worry about him becoming a popular streamer or building his company. All we have to do now is just get it so that people can see him.’
“Do you have any idea about how long it will take you to make everything?” Jasmine asked as she looked at him with excited eyes.
“About two months give or take, If I work non-stop maybe a month.” he shrugged
“No, no two months is good,” she tapped her fingers on the desk as ideas flowed through her head about the future “Actually it would be better if you waited three months to finish it instead.”
“Why?” his eyebrows raised
“Well, it has to do with what I originally came here to talk about.”
“Which is?” he propped his chin on his hand.
“Here take a look at these” she passed him a couple of papers.
Kam took them and started looking them over. As he looked Jasmine began to explain.
“Last night and some of this morning I was doing research into streaming. Since you said you ‘planned on’ becoming a streamer I assumed that you haven’t started yet. So I was looking into the best way for you to get started, and I found these.” She motioned to the papers in his hand
“Newbie Programs?” Kam asked with a confused look
Jasmine nodded “Yes. Newbie Programs. It is similar to an Idol Agency but for people who want to become full-time streamers. Though it is nowhere near as extensive as an Idol Agency.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just build my audience naturally instead of relying on this?” Kam asked unsure if this was a good route.
“You are mistaken, Kamara. This is a very natural route. Newbie programs do not do a lot, for you. Like I said it is a worse version of an idol program. You should not go into it thinking that they will be giving you an audience that will watch you automatically or that you will be receiving extensive training. If you do you will be sorely disappointed” Jasmine corrected
“Then what do they do?” he asked as he flipped to the next page.
“They do a total of four things, (some do more depending on the platform) but all of them do these four things. One they provide you with helpful insight into the nature of streaming including the do’s and don’ts that have traditionally helped streamers. Two, for as long as you are a part of their program, you are given a space on the home page of the website whenever you are live.
Three, depending on the content you want to create, you are put in a group of people with similar interests and viewership numbers. They recommend that you stream regularly with these people if you enjoy their company so that you can grow as a group. Basically, this means you will be leaching off of one another, and they will be on your auto-host. And lastly, you, and your group, will be given a coordinator who will be assigned specifically to help you all grow. They will offer advice and help with any problems that may arise.” she finished as she held up four fingers.
“That’s all seems great. But what if I don’t like the people I am in a group with, how big are the groups. What if my coordinator isn’t helping us? Also, surely this isn’t free.” Kam rapidly asked the questions that were on his mind.
Jasmine’s smile got brighter when she heard Kam’s questions “Good you’re asking important questions” she complemented
“But you don’t have to worry I looked into all of that earlier. When it comes to disliking a group member, while it is not recommended, you do not have to stream with all your members if you do not want to. And if a person is not meshing well with the group they can ask to be reassigned or the group can vote to kick them out. Groups can range anywhere from three to six people depending on the number of new signees that have similar interests as you.”
Kam nodded and let Jasmine continue
“In regards to the coordinators, that was one of my worries too, but I found online that most of their paycheck come through incentives that they receive based on how well their group does within a given time frame. I don’t have exact numbers but if I had to guess some of the more successful coordinators probably make well over six figures. So it would be against their best interest to not help you. But if that doesn’t ease your worries, each company has a way to get in contact with their HR department if your coordinator is not doing their job properly.”
“Ok, that helps, now how much is this thing going to cost? Surely with all there providing it can’t be cheap.”
“As I said before, some organizations provide more so the prices fluctuate but the minimum I could find is two thousand credits a year. But this is just the minimum membership to one of the less popular websites. While I can’t speak for their overall efficiency, I can say that some of the people that have come out of these programs have grown to become some of the largest streamers in the world, like Alluring on the Flinch platform or Diablas from Cornerstone.”
Kam's eyes slightly widened when he heard Alluring's name. Something that Jasmine didn’t miss.
‘He knows one of those two. Good. He can use that connection later on. I just need to figure out which one’ she quickly thought before continuing.
“But it is possible to get on the program for free if you have shown that you have potential already, either by making videos or massing a small streaming viewership on a platform already. As far as I know, you do not have any of this. But you do have something else that I am sure that these companies will be more than willing to jump at.” she looked at him with a grin on her face.
“The role play server” Kam smiled in return
“Exactly, if we come to them with the idea of the roleplaying server then I am sure many would be more than willing to partner with you in the endeavor. The idea of the server, if it works how you said it would, is promising. Enough to at least give an initial investment into. We will have to work on a good pitch, but I will handle that.
All they will have to do is promote your channel in the three months leading up to the release of the server and then maybe do some extra marketing (I already have a few ideas) and by the time the server release’s you and your group will have a decent-sized audience that will spike when the server releases. And will only grow as long people retain an interest in the server. And if we do our contract right we might be able to work out something regarding your organization and other things. But that is for later. So after my explanation how are you feeling about it?” Jasmine asked with hopeful eyes.
She truly thought this would be the best way for Kamara to build his career as a streamer without the years of work that it would require to do it ‘organically’.
Kam crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Jasmine as he thought about what she just presented.
‘She is certainly good at her job. In less than a day, she has already thought up a whole plan for my streaming career. And it looks more promising than anything I could’ve come up with. If it works it will push my career forward by almost half a decade. It will be much better than the slow two or three-year build I was planning. Honestly, it won’t hurt to try and if it doesn’t work I will do it my way.’
After thinking it through Kam shrugged “I'm willing to give it a try. It’s better than any idea that I had”
“I am glad you find my idea satisfactory.” Jasmine thanked
“Yea, now all I have to do is pick a platform that I want to work with?” Kam asked not too sure where to go from here.
“At first that was the plan, but now that I know about the RP server I think we should modify it a little bit.”
“Modify it how?”
“Well at first I would’ve persuaded you to go for a larger platform like Flinch or Pipeline. Since they will have more people on the platform and the chances of people finding you are higher. But now I think we should go with one of the newer platforms. That way we have more leverage in our negotiations and should our plan works, you will be valued much more than you would be at a bigger sight. It is riskier but the reward is much more.”
The two of them looked at each other in the eyes for a while. Kamara thought about the risk of the plan and Jasmine hoped he accepted the idea because the rewards far outweighed the risk. And it would make their future so much easier.
He looked in her eyes and paused for a moment, letting the tension build before finally answering.
“So which companies did you have in mind” he smiled and spread out the papers on the desk.
Jasmine let out the breath she was holding before responding “well…”