Take: Eleven

Word Count: 1,036

It was a normal day at the SPR office.

A really normal day.

A little too normal.

We zoom in on a scene where Naru and Mai are sitting in the main room. They were sitting across from each other, on dark-blue colored couches that matched Naru's eyes.

And Mr. Monk was conveniently in the kitchen, because he was needed in a few scenes.

"You know, Naru," Mai said, as she refilled Naru's waterglass with carrot juice. She had been sitting on the couch with the carafe filling up the cup whenever he had drained it. She honestly didn't know why she got paid. "I have a feeling that something is going to happen today."

"And I'm supposed to care? Why?"

"Because, my ghost-senses are tingling. And you should never ignore my tingling ghost-senses."

Naru grunted in response as he took a drink of carrot juice. Mai could swear that his cheeks were turning a tad orange.

And then (true to Mai's word) it happened.

Mai pointed to some disconnected words floating over Naru's head. They were kind of white and fuzzy, but were coming into clearer focus every few seconds.

"You have words flying over your head," she said, knowing no better way to phrase it.

"Mai, don't be silly." Naru tilted his head up, and, by God, there were words floating over his head.

Naru leapt up and starting waving his hands around, like they were some obnoxious flies.

Mai didn't quite know what to do; the words were scattering around and were getting out of position. She put a hand onto his shoulder, careful that one of his thrashing hands didn't accidentally hit her in the face. "Naru, I think you're making them mad."

The words had, indeed, turned red. And had changed. Some of the words also started to randomly disappear until the sentence was practically unreadable.

Naru suddenly stopped and had a look of great concentration on his face, as if he would figure this all out in a minute (which the script normally allowed him to do).

But instead of a solution, he said, "Do you hear that?"

After he had mentioned it, Mai could hear a distant drumbeat. It seemed to echo all around the room, and there had certainly not been speakers installed this morning.

Naru pointed to a spot above her head. "You have them too!"

"Really?" Mai took off to the little bathroom. The mirror reflected all the words back at her, but they kept being plucked away until the sentence was unreadable.

…

Maybe - - - - - or - - - - - I - a - - I'm - - - - -

…

"This is weird." She called back to Naru, who hadn't moved.

"Is something wrong?" Mr. Monk said, emerging from the kitchen at the precise moment. He also had words above his head.

Mai ran from the bathroom, flailing her arms for dramatic emphasis. "This is tragic! We have words above our heads and I keep hearing broken music!"

The music did sound broken. It was like a band that had suddenly lost their bass and guitar player. There wasn't too much left after that besides the beating drums.

"I command you to speak," Naru said, glaring at Mr. Monk, who was toying with an old phone. It must have been an old client.

Mr. Monk sighed. "It's just a test run for the soundtrack for the series. They're trying to find songs that match our personalities, but obviously –" Mr. Monk pointed to the ruined words buzzing around his head, "– the producers can't secure any of the copyright."

"Oh, that's not so bad." Mai wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "I thought there was something much more serious was going on."

"This is very serious," Mr. Monk mumbled, "The show isn't going to have a soundtrack – there would have been a lot of money to be found there."

Mai wasn't paying attention to Mr. Monk; she was too busy looking at the words above Naru's head. Trying to see if she could figure out what the producers' thought Naru's song was.

…

Like - - I - - - - - - - - -

…

But it was very difficult.

"Well, I'm glad that's mostly cleared up." Naru folded his arms. "Mai get me some *bleep*."

Mai turned to look at him, and then raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I said, get me some *bleep*."

"Hm. I'm sorry, I can't hear you." Mai couldn't help the slightly wicked smile on her face. She held up the carrot juice carafe, pointing at it, but Naru just violently shook his head, and then looked at Mr. Monk for some kind of explanation.

He shrugged. "I don't know; maybe they're losing copyright on words now."

"Is that possible?" Naru asked.

"In the Ghost Hunt franchise, anything is possible."

"That is so *bleep*." Mai's eyes got wide but her smile got wider. "*Bleep* *bleep* *bleep*," she said.

"Mai, please don't play with the bleeper."

"*Bleep* *bleep* *bleep* *bleep*," Mai complained.

"Don't break the bleeper," Mr. Monk said, shaking his head.

"You mean we can't have *bleep* songs?" Naru asked, irritated. "What about, like, 'Happy Birthday'?"

"No, 'Happy Birthday' *bleep* *bleep* copyright issues, too. And why would you want Happy Birthday on this show, anyway?"

"*Bleep* *Bleep*," Mai said.

"This *bleep* obnoxious," Naru said. "I think I'm going to go back *bleep* early."

"It sounds like we're swearing every other word…" Mr. Monk said, rubbing his chin in a thinking matter.

"*Bleep*," Mai said angrily.

"Yes, Mai, we know you are there. But we can't help it when you keep using words that you know are going to be bleeped out," Mr. Monk said.

The words above Mai's head turned a dark red. "*Bleep* *bleep*."

"Monk," Naru said, raising his eyebrows at her as if she were some failed experiment. "I think they're cutting out everything that she's saying."

"*BLEEP*."

"Hey, the song's coming through," Monk said, listening to the hidden speakers play a full song.

"I know this song," Naru said, "It's by—"

And thus, the name of the artist slipped through and they were all sued.