The scene: a villain’s hide out. One wall is covered with monitors (salvaged b/w TV sets dating from the late 1960s/early 1970s) showing things going haywire around the globe. One wall is made of glass, beyond which hammerhead sharks circle in a tank of saltwater. A shoe containing a foot rests in the sand on the floor of the tank.
Villain: [running around looking flustered] OMG. Where’s that panic button? Is this the panic button, or the self-destruct button? OMG.
[Sound effect: a ringing telephone]
Villain: Hello?
Girl: Hi, dad.
Villain: Hi, kid.
Girl: How do I plug in the microphone?
Villain: Wut?
Girl: I want to play around with your new microphone. I’m sitting here at home in the cellar with the speaker, the mixer (I have the mic plugged in already) and all these cords and cables.
[Sound effect: klaxon signalling security breach, or re-entry of warheads, or both]
Villain: Eh, what?
Girl: No sound is coming out. What do I need to do? I’m just going to plug stuff in at random until it works, then I’ll know I got it right.
Villain: Er. That’s not so good. If you short something out, that would be bad, because I have a theremin performance tomorrow and need some of that gear.
[Sound effects: explosions, small-arms fire]
Villain: Listen. The mixer and the speaker must be plugged into a power source. Their cords are in a white plastic bag in a black cloth bag beside the speaker. Got it?
Girl: There’s only a blue bag.
[Sound effects: henchmen falling into shark tank, splash, snap]
Villain: Listen, okay, blue bag. Full of a mess of cables. The speaker cord is in there. The mixer cord is either in there or loose in the black bag.
Girl: What’s it look like?
Villain: Heavy small black cube with cords coming out two sides. One has a round end that plugs into the back of the mixer,the other end is a normal electrical plug.
Computer voice: Lair will self-destruct in four minutes.
Villain: Sorry if I’m short, honey, I’m a little distracted right now.
Girl: Okay.
Villain: After you get the power sources hooked up, you then need to connect the mixer output to the speaker input.
Girl: I have a cable in the speaker already. Which hole does it go into in the mixer?
Computer voice: Self-destruct in three minutes, thirty seconds.
Villain: Um, what do they say? They should be labeled. Not control room or headphones. Output or line out or something.
[Sound effects: Lasers. Pew-pew-pew!]
[Sound effects: cutting torch]
Girl: Main out?
Villain: Yes, sounds good. L or R should both work for the mic.
Girl: Okay, thanks, dad!
Villain: Have fun, honey. Bye.
[Sound effect: Dial tone.]
Computer voice: Self-destruct in two minutes, thirty seconds.
Villain: [Slaps forehead] Gah! I forgot to tell her to turn on the speaker. She’ll figure that out, right?